bX  7233  .J4  B8  1911 
Jefferson,  Charles  Edward, 

1860-1937. 
The  building  of  the  church 


L  :e  building  of  the  church 


NOV  -'  2  1912 
CHARLES   E.  JEFFERSON 


PASTOR  OF  THE  BROADWAY  TABERNACLE 
NEW  YORK  CITY 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1911 

AU  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1910, 
By  the  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotypcd.     Published  September,  1910.     Reprinted 
November,  1910  ;  April,  November,  1911. 


J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


The  lectures  of  this  volume  were  delivered  before 
he  Divinity  School  of  Yale  University^  in  the  months 
)f  April  and  May,  19  lo,  on  the  Lyman  Beecher 
Foundation. 


CONTENTS 


LBCTURES 

I.    The  Church  Building   Idea  in  the  New 
Testament 

II.  Building  the  Brotherhood  . 

III.  Building  the  Individual 

IV.  Building  Moods  and  Tempers 
V.  Building  Thrones 

VI.    Building  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 

VII.    Building  the  Plan 

VIII.    The  Building  of  THE  Builder 


I 
41  ^ 

79^ 
117 

15s, 
191 
231 
269 


vii 


LECTURE  I 

THE   CHURCH  BUILDING   IDEA 
IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 


THE  CHURCH  BUILDING  IDEA  IN 

THE   NEW   TESTAMENT 

The  sovereign  interest  which  this  lectureship 
holds  in  its  eye  —  the  work  of  Preaching  —  has  not 
been  overlooked  in  the  choosing  of  my  subject.  I 
do  not  forget  that  I  am  speaking  to  men  who  are  in- 
terested supremely  in  the  art  of  preaching,  but  I 
invite  you  to  approach  the  subject  through  the 
Christian  church.  After  so  many  illustrious  teach- 
ers have  spoken  on  the  subject,  it  would  be  indeed 
presumptuous  for  any  man  at  this  late  date  to  at- 
tempt to  offer  additional  suggestion  or  instruction, 
were  it  not  that  the  subject  of  preaching  lies,  like  the 
New  Jerusalem,  foursquare,  with  an  ideal  number  of 
gates  on  every  side,  through  any  one  of  which  the 
lecturer  may  make  his  way  into  the  heart  of  the  im- 
perial theme.  The  traditional  method  of  approach 
has  been  through  the  pulpit,  an  institution  estab- 
lished for  the  proclamation  of  the  Christian  message; 
and  when  this  method  is  adopted  it  is  natural  that  the 
topic  uppermost  in  the  discussion  should  be  either 
the  message,  its  subject  matter  and  its  manner  of 
treatment,  or  the  messenger,  his  personality  and 

3 


4      CHURCH   BUILDING  IDEA  IN  NEW   TESTAMENT 

character,  his  pulpit  elocution  and  gestures,  his 
literary  habit  and  style.  This  method  of  approach 
is  the  direct  and  obvious  one,  and  is  not  without  great 
rewards.  Like  all  methods,  however,  it  has  its 
limitations,  and  carries  with  it  certain  perils  which, 
unless  guarded  against,  are  likely  to  work  mischief. 
It  is  easily  possible  to  think  of  the  work  of  preaching 
too  narrowly,  to  imagine  that  it  is  a  matter  concern- 
ing supremely  one  individual  —  the  man  in  the 
pulpit.  One  may  come  xmder  the  sway  of  the  idea 
that  in  any  discussion  of  the  work  of  preaching  the 
preacher  himself  is  the  primary,  if  not  the  sole,  object 
of  study,  that  it  is  upon  his  mental  endowments  and 
spiritual  attainments  that  the  success  of  the  sermon 
chiefly  depends,  and  that  in  the  education  of  minis- 
ters attention  ought  to  be  jealously  focussed  on  those 
disciplines  by  which  the  preacher  is  most  surely 
fitted  to  deliver  acceptably  a  pulpit  discourse. 

But  preaching,  when  we  look  at  it  long  enough,  is 
seen  to  involve,  not  one  man  only,  but  a  society  of 
men.  No  preacher  lives  to  himself  nor  dies  to  himself. 
He  is  an  organ  functioning  in  an  organism,  finding  his 
life  in  the  vital  relations  by  which  he  is  bound  to  other 
lives.  His  endowments  and  attainments  are  only 
one  factor  in  the  work  of  preaching,  another  factor 
of  no  less  importance  being  the  attainments  and  en- 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA  IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      5 

dowments  of  the  Christian  society.  The  sermon  is 
not  the  voice  of  an  isolated  individual,  but  the  utter- 
ance of  a  body  of  men  baptized  into  the  name  of 
Jesus.  The  sermon  comes  not  out  of  the  preacher 
alone,  but  out  of  the  church.  The  preacher  gives 
back  what  he  receives.  He  cannot  feed  himself. 
He  is  nourished  by  his  environment  —  the  family 
of  Christ.  He  cannot  shape  himself.  He  is  moulded 
by  the  body  of  believers.  He  cannot  grow  in  isola- 
tion. He  is  a  plant  dependent  on  the  atmosphere 
and  the  weather,  both  of  which  are  largely  the  crea- 
tion of  the  Christian  people.  The  church  cannot 
wisely  be  ignored  in  any  comprehensive  study  of  the 
preacher ^s  work,  nor  can  it  be  shoved  into  the  back- 
ground without  loss.  The  traditional  method  has 
been  to  reach  the  church  through  the  preacher.  Let* 
us  in  this  course  of  lectures  try  to  reach  the  preacher  j 
through  the  church.  It  has  become  the  fashion  to 
come  to  the  congregation  through  the  sermon.  It 
may  prove  advantageous  to  come  to  the  sermon 
through  the  congregation.  The  church  is  older  than 
the  pulpit,  the  congregation  antedates  the  preacher. 
It  was  not  the  pulpit  which  created  the  church,  but 
the  church  which  created  the  pulpit.  It  is  not  the 
preacher  who  keeps  alive  the  Christian  society;  it  is 
the  Christian  society  which  keeps  alive  the  preacher. 


6      CHURCH    BUILDING   IDEA  IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

In  an  earnest  study,  therefore,  of  preaching,  we 
are  justified  in  beginning  with  the  church,  the 
spiritual  society  through  which  the  preacher  first 
came  to  be,  and  by  which  preaching  is  ever  nourished 
and  kept  vital. 

There  are  special  reasons  why  this  method  of  ap- 
proach is  just  now  not  only  opportune,  but  likely 
to  prove  most  rewarding,  one  of  which  is  that  the 
church  is  in  many  quarters  thrown  into  the  shadow. 
Owing  to  the  multiphcation  of  organizations  en- 
gaged in  ethical  and  philanthropic  work,  the 
church  does  not  loom  so  large  in  the  public  eye  as 
formerly.  Surrounded  by  a  host  of  religious  and 
semireligious  bodies,  it  is  partially  hidden  by 
them,  and  its  glory  once  unique  and  splendidly 
impressive,  is  somewhat  shorn.  Moreover,  there 
is  a  new  world  view  point,  and  everything  has  come 
to  judgment.  All  the  fundamental  institutions  of 
humanity  —  the  family,  the  state,  the  church  — 
have  been  thrown  into  the  crucible  and  are  being 
tried  by  fire.  There  are  voices  declaring  that  the 
family  as  hitherto  existing  is  a  fountain  flowing 
plagues  and  curses,  to  be  superseded  by  something 
better ;  and  that  the  state,  as  the  world  has  thus 
far  known  it,  is  an  instrument  of  injustice  and  op- 
pression, to  be  thrown  upon  the  scrap  heap  of  worn- 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT      7 

out  institutions.  In  an  age  so  radical,  it  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  the  church  of  Christ  should  be 
scrutinized  with  hostile  eyes  and  classed  by  many 
among  those  curious  organisms  which  have  a  trick 
of  surviving  their  usefulness.  'There  is  a  great 
company  of  thoughtful  people  for  whom  the 
Christian  church  has  no  significance.  Some  of  them 
ignore  it  altogether,  others  notice  it  only  to  smile 
at  it  as  a  survival  of  a  waning  superstition,  or  to 
curse  it  as  an  obstacle  to  progress.  To  others  it 
had  a  place;  but  to-day,  alas,  its  creeds  are  all  out- 
grown, its  methods  antiquated,  its  power  is  dwin- 
dling, and  the  wisdom  of  perpetuating  it  in  its 
present  form  is  questionable.  The  seat  of  the 
scornful  is  crowded,  and  so  also  is  the  seat  of  the 
mournful,  the  seat  wherein  congregate  the  good 
people  who  are  always  lamenting  the  decay  of  the 
pulpit  and  the  decline  of  the  church.  When  they 
look  backward,  they  see  pulpit  giants;  when 
they  look  round  them,  they  see  pulpit  dwarfs. 
The  church  was  mighty  once,  but  not  now.  These 
are  the  people  who  write  newspaper  articles  on 
"the  decadence  of  the  pulpit,"  who  pubHsh  novels 
showing  that  if  Christlike  people  desire  to  ac- 
complish anything  worth  while,  they  must  cut 
loose  from  the  church,  who  deliver  lectures  in  which 


8      CHURCH  BUILDING   IDEA  IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  most  sparkling  paragraphs  are  gibes  at  the 
preachers  and  thrusts  at  the  church  members. 
The  most  vigorous  and  plausible  criticism  of  our 
day  is  directed,  not  against  the  person  of  Jesus  nor 
his  ethical  teaching,  but  against  the  institution 
which  bears  his  name.  It  is  a  good  time  for  all  who 
intend  to  preach  to  think  about  the  church. 

Many  preachers  are  thinking  little  about  it, 
and  others  are  thinking  about  it  mistakenly.  The 
very  word  "church"  is  in  many  pulpits  tabooed. 
There  are  clergymen  who  preach  no  longer  about 
the  church.  Their  favorite  theme  is  the  "  Kingdom 
of  God."  An  influential  American  theologian, 
in  a  valuable  treatise  on  theology,  picks  up  the 
word  "church"  only  to  drop  it,  using  in  its  place 
"The  Christian  People."  An  EngUsh  preacher, 
whose  praise  is  in  all  the  churches,  and  who  although 
dead  yet  speaks,  keeps  saying  in  one  of  his  most 
popular  volumes  that  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
Paul  did  not  say  less  about  the  church  and  more 
about  the  Kingdom,  because  the  characteristic 
product  of  the  church  is  ecclesiastics,  whereas  the 
characteristic  product  of  the  Kingdom  is  philan- 
thropists. An  eminent  German  theologian  has 
informed  us  that  the  church  is  not  an  essential 
part  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.    Christianity  needs,  he 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA  IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      9 

says,  no  dogma,  no  organization,  and  no  ritual. 
Christianity,  when  rightly  understood,  is  simply  a 
filial  disposition  in  the  heart.  When  those  who  sit 
in  the  seats  of  the  mighty  speak  after  this  fashion, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  men  lower  down 
begin  to  think  of  the  church  with  a  slackened 
reverence  and  to  speak  of  it  with  a  diminished 
enthusiasm.  The  church  has  to  many  Christians 
become  an  object  to  be  apologized  for,  and  has 
ceased  to  be  an  institution  to  be  sacrificed  for  and 
loved.  There  is  no  doctrine  of  the  Christian  creed 
in  which  it  is  so  easy  for  young  men  to-day  to  go 
astray  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  church. 

The  effect  of  this  widespread  scepticism  in  regard 
to  the  church  is  manifesting  itself  increasingly. 
The  diminished  attendance  at  theological  seminaries 
on  both  sides  of  the  sea  is  a  subject  of  troubled 
discussion,  and  many  an  explanation  has  been 
offered.  It  is  singular  that  one  of  the  root  causes 
has  been  generally  overlooked  altogether.  Young 
men  in  diminished  numbers  are  preparing  them- 
selves for  the  ministry,  largely  because  the  im- 
pression is  abroad  that  the  pulpit  is  in  a  state  of 
decay,  that  ministers  are  no  longer  men  of  influence, 
that  the  church  is  obsolescent,  and  that  there  are 
other  and  better  ways  in  which  a  Christian  man  can 


lO      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

make  his  life  count  in  the  work  of  social  betterment. 
Our  age  is  not  a  whit  more  materialistic  than  all 
other  ages  have  been.  The  young  men  of  our  day 
have  as  high  ideals  as  young  men  have  ever  had, 
their  impulses  are  as  generous  and  noble,  their 
faith  in  Christ  is  as  deep  and  secure,  their  ambition 
to  serve  humanity  has  never  been  surpassed;  but 
never  have  men  been  so  practical  as  now.  They 
want  opportunity  to  do  something  worth  while,  they 
desire  to  make  their  lives  count  for  the  utmost 
possible,  and  many  of  them  hesitate  to  enter  the 
ministry,  because  they  have  heard  it  said  by 
Christian  men  —  it  may  be  by  a  Christian  college 
president,  or  a  Christian  college  professor,  or  a 
Christian  editor,  or  a  Christian  business  man  — 
that  the  pulpit  is  a  waning  power,  that  it  offers 
opportunities  for  service  far  inferior  to  those 
offered  in  other  fields.  Many  a  young  man  has 
recently  turned  his  back  on  the  ministry  because  he 
was  unwilling  to  consecrate  his  life  to  the  propping 
up  of  an  institution  which,  in  the  estimation  of  so 
many  Christian  men  in  whose  judgment  he  has 
confidence,  is  anaemic  and  likely  to  collapse.  It 
is  chiefly  because  the  church  of  God  as  a  divine 
and  mighty  and  indispensable  institution  has  fallen 
into  disrepute,  that  we  find  ourselves  facing  the 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA    IN   NEW  TESTAMENT       II 

question,    ^'How  can  we  increase    the  number  of 
candidates  for  the  ministry  ?'* 

It  is  sad  to  see  a  man  turning  away  from 
the  ministry  because  he  does  not  understand  the 
church,  but  it  is  tragic  to  see  one  entering  the 
ministry  with  a  wrong  attitude  to  the  church. 
Young  ministers  sometimes  look  upon  the  church 
as  a  necessary  evil,  an  inherited  encumbrance,  a 
sort  of  device  by  which  preachers  are  handicapped 
in  their  movements  and  held  back  from  largest 
usefulness.  Men  of  this  type  are  eager  to  get  at 
what  they  call  the  world.  Their  desire  is  to  re- 
construct the  social  order.  They  want  to  do 
things  on  a  broad  scale.  To  deal  with  so  small  and 
insignificant  a  body  as  a  church  seems  parochial 
and  belittHng.  All  they  want  is  a  pulpit,  a  place 
in  which  to  stand  and  thunder  forth  their  message. 
They  eye  church  officials  with  suspicion.  They 
would  rather  work  alone.  They  are  sorry  they 
must  stay  in  a  church  building.  A  theatre  would 
suit  them  better.  As  for  pastoral  visitation,  they 
abhor  it.  It  eats  up  time  which  ought  to  be  given 
to  the  proclamation  of  ideas  and  the  correction  of 
evils.  To  be  sure,  a  church  has  its  uses.  It  can 
furnish  the  minister's  salary  and  pay  the  sexton, 
but,  outside  of  this,  its  usefulness  is  problematic. 


12      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

Ordinarily  it  is  in  the  way,  and  time  spent  upon  it 
might  better  be  otherwise  employed.  When  a 
minister  of  this  stripe  goes  into  a  parish  the  first 
man  he  visits  is  the  printer.  He  beheves  in 
printer's  ink.  Printer's  ink  will  let  the  people  know 
he  is  there.  He  does  not  know  that  a  living 
church  is  better  for  advertising  purposes  than  all 
the  printing  presses  in  the  town.  He  scatters  cards 
to  reach  the  masses.  He  has  yet  to  learn  that  the 
preacher  best  reaches  the  masses  who  knows  best 
how  to  reach  his  church.  He  is  furious  to  get  at 
the  crowd,  and  in  order  to  get  at  it  he  is  willing  to 
trample  on  his  church.  It  is  as  if  a  school-teacher  in 
order  to  educate  a  community  should  turn  his  back 
on  his  school,  or  a  physician  in  order  to  heal  the 
town  should  ignore  his  hospital,  or  that  a  general 
in  haste  to  annihilate  the  enemy  should  do  away 
with  his  army.  He  burns  to  reconstruct  the  world, 
not  suspecting  that  the  particular  section  of  the 
world  which  first  needs  reconstruction  at  his 
hands  is  his  own  church.  He  is  burdened  with  the 
conviction  that  he  is  ordained  to  fight  the  world, 
the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  and  in  his  innocence  he  does 
not  know  that  all  these  are  waiting  for  him  in  his 
church. 
If  it  is  a  blunder  to  ignore  the  church  in  an  effort 


CHURCH  BUILDING   IDEA  IN   NEW  TESTAMENT      I3 

to  reach  the  masses,  it  is  a  more  serious  blunder  to 
slight  the  church  in  one's  direct  dealings  with  it. 
Some  ministers  take  hold  of  a  church  as  though 
it  were  a  lump  of  putty  or  a  piece  of  wood  to  be 
shaped  at  their  will.  They  do  not  give  it  credit  for 
having  a  soul  of  its  own.  They  begin  at  once  to 
reorganize  it.  They  set  out  before  breakfast 
to  make  it  all  over.  Nothing  about  it  suits  them. 
The  Sunday-school  is  on  a  wrong  basis.  The 
young  people's  society  has  faulty  methods.  The 
Woman's  Missionary  Circle  has  an  antiquated 
constitution.  Even  the  Cradle  Roll  must  have 
a  new  set  of  by-laws.  All  these  changes  must  be 
made  immediately.  i^The  new  minister  does  not 
know  that  the  church  has  a  disposition  and  temper- 
ament of  its  own,  that  its  personahty  is  as  distinct 
and  soHd  as  his,  that  it  is  an  organism  with  traditions 
which  are  sacred  and  customs  which  are  hallowed, 
with  notions  and  whims  that  must  be  respected,  and 
with  idiosyncrasies  which  cannot  safely  be  ignored.) 
Blessed  is  the  preacher  who  reahzes  that  he  is  only 
a  sojourner  as  all  his  fathers  were.  He  stands  in  the 
line  of  a  long  succession.  Other  men  have  labored 
and  he  is  entering  into  their  labors.  It  is  not  for 
him  to  start  out  as  though  the  world  were  just 
beginning.     The  church  was  there  before  he  was 


14      CHURCH  BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

born.  It  will  be  there  after  he  is  dead.  He  is  not  a 
clerical  Robinson  Crusoe  on  a  desert  island.  The 
shore  is  covered  with  human  tracks.  If  he  is  a  man 
of  sense  he  will  take  note  of  them,  and  observe  the 
direction  in  which  men  have  been  moving.  The 
first  thing  in  the  town  for  a  preacher  to  take  notice 
of  is  his  church.  Let  him  begin  at  once  to  study 
it,  to  strive  to  understand  it,  to  come  into  sympathy 
with  it,  to  plan  for  it,  to  render  himself  useful  to 
it,  to  make  himself  a  part  of  it,  and  in  this  way  he 
will  come  to  love  it.  When  he  once  loves  it,  he 
will  possess  the  first  requisite  of  a  successful  preacher. 
If  it  is  hazardous  to  slight  the  church  in  the 
work  of  administration,  it  is  fatal  to  ignore  it  in 
the  work  of  preaching.  Young  ministers  are  often 
rich  in  note-books  when  they  go  into  their  first 
parish,  and  they  begin  to  work  out  of  their  note- 
books toward  the  church.  This  is  a  blunder  and 
often  leads  the  saints  to  say  sundry  uncomplimen- 
tary things  about  theological  seminaries.  Preach- 
ers should  work  from  their  parish  toward  their 
note-books.  It  is  the  church  which  must  deter- 
mine the  character  of  the  pulpit  instruction  and  the 
sequence  of  it.  The  church  is  a  growing  organism 
and  the  preacher  must  know  the  stage  of  its  devel- 
opment before  he  can  feed  it.    He  cannot  use  the 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN  KEW  TESTAMENT      1 5 

material  in  his  note-books  before  he  finds  out 
whether  that  is  the  material  which  is  just  now 
needed.  Possibly  the  contents  of  his  notes  may 
be  wet  sawdust,  possibly  gunpowder.  They  may 
dampen  and  deaden,  or  they  may  cause  an  ex- 
plosion. Men  sometimes  are  blown  out  of  their 
pulpit  by  working  from  their  note-books  toward  the 
church,  instead  of  from  the  church  toward  their 
note-books.  Let  a  man  find  out  what  the  church 
is  able  to  digest  and  assimilate,  and  then  go  to  his 
books  in  search  of  it.  A  physician  always  looks  at 
his  patient  before  he  goes  to  the  medicine  chest. 
A  wise  preacher  begins,  not  with  his  books,  but  with 
his  church. 

The  old  question  of  ministerial  liberty  is  always 
coming  up  to  torment  us,  and  the  scandals  caused 
by  preachers  insisting  on  what  they  call  their  rights 
are  among  the  most  vexing  with  which  the  church 
has  to  deal.  Every  Christian  minister  is  of  course 
free,  but  freedom  has  its  laws.  Liberty  is  precious, 
but  it  has  its  Hmitations.  Because  a  minister  is  free 
it  does  not  follow  that  he  has  a  right  to  proclaim 
from  the  pulpit  everything  he  reads  or  everything 
which  he  happens  to  be  thinking.  Certain  men 
are  always  getting  confused  at  this  point.  Their 
bewilderment  is  due  to  a  forgetting  of  the  church. 


1 6      CHURCH  BTHLDING   IDEA  IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

A  man  comes  to  think  of  himself  as  being  the  church. 
He  forgets  that  the  faith  was  deHvered  to  the 
saints  —  the  entire  body  of  the  Lord's  followers. 
He  is  only  one  man  among  many.  A  theological 
education  does  not  give  him  the  right  to  set  himself 
in  a  class  apart,  and  to  count  himself  independent 
of  the  Christian  brotherhood.  He  is  not  a  pulpit 
pope.  He  has  his  rights,  but  so  also  have  other 
Christians.  He  wishes  to  be  free,  so  also  do  his 
brethren.  There  is  a  liberty  of  hearing  as  well  as 
a  liberty  of  speaking.  In  asserting  what  he  calls 
his  freedom,  he  may  rob  others  of  the  liberties 
which  belong  to  them  as  Christian  men.  The 
church  of  Christ  stands  in  the  world  as  the  ordained 
teacher  of  definite  conceptions  of  God  and  man, 
of  duty  and  destiny,  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  of  the  church  and  the  sacraments; 
and  if  a  preacher  in  the  course  of  his  mental  evolu- 
tion comes  to  reject  any  of  the  beliefs  which  the 
church  counts  fundamental,  there  is  nothing  for 
him  to  do  but  to  retire.  To  promise  to  teach  a 
certain  set  of  beliefs  and  then  proceed  to  repudiate 
them,  is  not  exercising  the  liberty  of  prophesying, 
but  simply  faiHng  to  keep  one's  word.  One  is  al- 
ways at  liberty  to  withdraw  from  the  Christian 
pulpit  as  soon  as  he  has  surrendered  the  Christian 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT      1 7 

creed.  The  man  who  wants  to  know  what  are  his 
liberties  as  a  teacher  must  work,  not  from  himself 
toward  the  church,  but  from  the  church  toward 
himself. 

Sometimes  it  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  preach- 
ing fundamental  doctrine  as  of  proclaiming  certain 
ethical  principles,  and  attacking  certain  undoubted 
moral  evils.'  Here  again  the  preacher  must  begin 
by  estabhshing  right  relations  between  himself  and 
his  church.  It  is  often  said  that  under  our  American 
plan  of  ministerial  support,  a  preacher  is  constantly 
tempted  to  hold  back  unpalatable  teaching,  and  is 
in  danger  of  degenerating  into  a  flatterer  or  dema- 
gogue. The  danger  is  real,  but  can  easily  be 
escaped.  If  a  man  has  a  contemptuous  view  of  his 
church  he  is  well-nigh  certain  to  be  afraid  of  it. 
But  love  casts  out  fear.  If  a  man  loves  his  church 
and  proves  his  love  by  his  life,  he  can  say  to  it 
anything  which  is  proper  for  a  Christian  teacher  to  ^ 
say  to  his  pupils,  anything  which  it  is  fitting  for  a 
Christian  man  to  say  to  his  friends.  The  preachers^ 
who  get  into  trouble  by  talking  plainly  to  their 
people  are  as  a  rule  preachers  who  do  not  love  their 
churches.  If  a  man  stays  in  his  study  through  the 
week,  wishing  he  could  get  a  call  to  a  larger  church, 
secretly  despising  the  flock  of  which  he  is  the  ap- 


1 8      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

pointed  shepherd,  and  then  goes  into  the  pulpit  on 
the  Lord's  day,  and  thunders  against  his  people's 
sins,  there  may  be  a  storm,  and  there  ought  to  be. 
No  man  has  a  right  to  chide  or  condemn  men, 
unless  he  has  won  the  right  by  loving  them.  It  is  a 
clear  vision  of  the  church  which  preachers  most 
need  when  they  come  to  deal  with  questions  of 
liberty  in  the  proclamation  of  their  message. 

Another  outstanding  phenomenon  of  our  age  is 
the  shortening  of  pastorates.  This  is  due  in  part 
to  hazy  conceptions  of  the  preacher's  supreme 
work.  If  a  man  thinks  his  mission  in  the  world  is 
the  delivering  of  sermons,  he  is  likely  to  want  to  pass 
from  parish  to  parish,  staying  only  long  enough  in 
each  pulpit  to  exhaust  his  sermonic  stock.  Such  a 
man  is  a  sermonizer,  but  not  a  church  builder.  He 
has  been  trained  to  write  sermons,  but  not  in- 
structed in  the  art  of  church  building.  He  does  not 
know  what  the  supreme  work  of  a  minister  of  Christ 
is.  He  does  not  know  what  preaching  is  for.  His 
knowledge  does  not  run  beyond  the  A  B  C's  of  his 
calling.  He  thinks  of  himself  as  a  man  whose  sole 
business  is  to  convert  sinners.  Having  persuaded 
sinners  to  say  they  want  to  follow  Christ,  and 
having  induced  them  to  unite  with  the  church,  his 
labor,  he  thinks,  is  ended.     It  does  not  occur  to 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT       1 9 

him  that  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  minister's 
work  is  with  people  after  they  have  joined  the 
church.  The  minister  is  a  teacher,  and  a  teacher's 
real  work  begins  only  after  the  pupils  are  enrolled. 
He  is  the  general  of  an  army,  and  a  general's 
critical  task  is  drilling  his  men  after  they  have  en- 
listed, and  massing  them  in  such  ways  as  to  conquer 
the  foe.  He  is  a  master-builder,  and  his  task  is  not 
simply  collecting  material,  but  shaping  it  into  a 
structure  which  shall  become  a  shrine  of  the  Eternal. 
The  crowning  and  crucial  work  of  a  minister  is  not  \ 
conversion,  but  church  building.  A  man  who  does 
nothing  but  convert  men  is  an  evangelist,  and 
should  never  be  intrusted  with  a  church.  His 
work  is  of  value,  but  is  easily  overestimated.  He 
deserves  a  high  place,  but  not  the  highest.  The 
highest  place  belongs  to  the  man  who,  year  after  year, 
in  the  same  parish,  instructs  men  in  the  high  and 
difficult  art  of  living  together,  and  trains  them  by 
long  and  patient  processes  in  the  work  of  bringing 
spiritual  forces  to  bear  upon  the  moral  problems  of 
the  community.  The  work  of  the  evangeHst  is 
necessarily  spectacular,  and  often  bewitches  the 
eyes  of  men  who  are  young.  Evangelism  seems, 
sometimes,  to  young  men  a  more  Christlike  and 
sacrificial  form  of  service  than  the  work  performed 


20      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

in  the  course  of  the  ordinary  ministry;  but  the  fact 
is  that  the  work  of  the  evangelist  is  not  nearly  so 
taxing  either  upon  brain  or  heart  as  is  the  work  per- 
formed by  a  man  who  through  a  long  series  of  years 
gives  himself  devotedly  to  the  soul-exhausting  labor 
of  knitting  the  lives  of  men  together  and  building 
them  up  in  righteousness.  Young  preachers  in 
quiet  and  obscure  parishes,  reading  of  the  exploits 
of  famous  evangelists  moving  in  triumphal  proces- 
sion across  the  land,  sometimes  grow  discontented, 
and  wish  that  they  too  might  leap  upon  a  larger 
stage  and  play  a  thrilling  part  in  the  great  drama 
of  world  redemption.  But  it  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that  it  is  not  simply  the  men  who  scatter 
seed,  but  the  men  also  who  cultivate  the  grain  and 
garner  the  harvest  who  win  the  right  to  a  place 
among  the  world's  benefactors.  Converting  men 
only  once  amounts  ordinarily  to  little.  They 
must  be  converted  many  times.  Faces  must  be 
turned  in  the  right  direction,  but  what  avails  this, 
unless  hesitant  and  stumbling  feet  are  trained  to 
walk  toward  the  goal.  The  preacher  who  induces 
men  to  turn  to  God  and  join  the  church  does  well, 
but  his  supreme  work  as  a  Christian  preacher  is 
building  converts  into  a  brotherhood.  The  young 
preacher  who  at  the  end  of  the  second  year  in  a. 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      21 

parish  says,  "  My  work  is  done,"  does  not  know  what 
he  is  saying.  It  may  be  that  his  stock  of  star 
sermons  is  exhausted,  or  that  the  available  outside 
sinners  have  all  handed  in  their  names;  but  if  he 
understood  a  minister's  mission,  he  would  see  that 
his  work  has  scarcely  begun.  In  two  years  a  man 
can  learn  something  of  the  nature  of  the  material 
with  which  he  has  to  deal,  but  the  critical  and 
arduous  work  of  building  lies  still  ahead  of  him. 
No  matter  how  long  he  stays,  there  will  be  more 
work  to  do  than  there  was  in  sight  at  the  beginning. 
Men  who  engage  in  the  building  of  the  church  know 
that  the  work  is  never  done. 

One  cannot  help  wondering  if  not  a  little  of  the 
restlessness  and  discontent  which  fill  the  hearts  of 
so  many  pastors  is  not  due  to  confused  notions  of 
their  relation  to  the  church.  Many  a  preacher  has 
a  hungry  heart  because  he  has  never  yet  gotten 
close  enough  ^to  his  people.  Preaching  is  a  lonely 
business.  A  man  sweats  blood  in  preaching,  and 
oftentimes  the  nerves  are  left  unstrung.  How  can  a 
preacher  do  his  work  except  in  an  atmosphere  made 
warm  by  Christian  affection  ?  In  the  earlier  years 
it  is  exhilarating  to  preach,  because  one  finds  relief 
in  self-expression.  But  as  the  years  go  on,  there 
is  less  delight  in  the  mere  act  of  saying  things, 


y 


22      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

and  the  heart  craves  more  and  more  the  fellowship 
of  kindred  minds.  A  preacher  who  does  not  love 
his  church,  and  whom  his  church  does  not  love, 
is  of  all  men  most  pitiable.  Many  a  minister's 
career  would  have  been  a  different  one,  had  he  only 
come  to  his  pulpit  by  way  of  his  church. 

Turning  now  from  the  voices  of  an  age  which 
has  become  confused  in  its  idea  of  the  church, 
let  us  open  the  scriptures  and  purge  our  eyes  by 
gazing  upon  the  church  as  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  saw  it.  With  whom  may  we  more 
fittingly  begin  than  with  that  preacher  without  a 
peer  —  St.  Paul  ?  In  genius  and  consecration,  in 
passion  and  power,  no  ambassador  of  Christ  in  the 
long  roll  of  the  Christian  centuries  has  written  his 
name  above  the  name  of  the  man  of  Tarsus.  Like 
many  a  modern  critic,  Paul  at  one  time  looked  upon 
the  church  contemptuously.  The  prophet  of  Naza- 
reth, having  run  his  short  and  ignominious  career, 
had  vanished,  leaving  behind  him  a  company  of 
fanatics  to  be  resisted  and  if  possible  annihilated. 
The  fiery  disciple  of  Gamaliel  breathed  forth 
threatenings  and  slaughter  against  this  novel  and 
accursed  form  of  heresy.  But  one  day,  when 
his  hand  was  uplifted  ready  to  strike  the  little 
church  in   Damascus,   Paul  heard  Jesus   saying, 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW    TESTAMENT      23 

"Why  persecutes!  thou  me?"  In  this  question 
there  came  a  twofold  revelation  —  a  revelation  of 
the  character  of  Jesus,  and  a  revelation  of  the 
relation  of  Jesus  to  his  church.  To  his  amazement 
Paul  discovered  that  Jesus  is  not  only  Hving,  but 
that  he  is  identified  with  his  church,  and  that  it  is 
impossible  to  slight,  despise,  or  oppose  the  church 
without  wounding  the  Son  of  God  himself.  From 
that  hour  to  his  death  Paul  knew  but  two  sovereign 
themes  —  one  was  Jesus  Christ,  the  other  was  the 
church.  The  only  sin  whose  memory  burned  Kke 
fire  in  his  heart  was  the  sin  which  he  had  committed 
against  the  church.  When  you  find  him  with  his 
face  in  the  dust,  it  is  his  persecution  of  the  church 
which  he  is  bewaiHng.  When  he  declares  he  is  the 
chief  of  sinners  and  that  he  is  not  worthy  to  be 
called  an  apostle,  it  is  because  the  recollection  of 
his  sin  against  the  church  rolls  over  him  like  a  flood. 
When  you  seek  him  at  his  highest,  jubilant  and 
enraptured,  you  find  him  thinking  of  the  church. 
It  is  a  subject  never  absent  from  his  mind.  He 
ransacks  his  vocabulary  in  search  of  figures  by  which 
adequately  to  image  forth  his  idea  of  the  church's 
character  and  mission.  Sometimes  he  thinks  of  it 
as  the  household  of  faith  —  the  family  of  Jehovah. 
At  other  times  he  sees  it  as  the  temple  of  God,  the 


24      CHURCH  BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

very  seat  and  shrine  of  the  Eternal.  Again  it 
presents  itself  to  him  as  the  body  of  Christ,  the  or- 
ganism in  which  Christ's  spirit  operates,  the  instru- 
ment by  which  the  soul  of  Christ  works.  Still  again 
it  rises  before  him  beautiful  and  radiant  as  a  woman 
in  the  hour  of  her  greatest  loveliness,  the  bride 
of  the  world's  Redeemer.  Now  and  again  he  sees 
it  lifting  itself  superbly  as  the  pillar  and  ground  of 
the  truth,  holding  aloft  in  the  eyes  of  the  nations 
the  mystery  of  godHness  —  Jesus.  Always  it  is 
to  him  the  medium  of  revelation,  the  organ  through 
which  the  Almighty  speaks  both  to  men  and  to 
angels.  ''And  now  unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the 
least  of  all  saints,  was  this  grace  given,  to  preach 
unto  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ, 
to  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  principalities  and  the 
powers  in  the  heavenly  places  might  be  made  known 
through  the  church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." 
It  was  when  he  wrote  to  his  maturest  converts  — 
those  in  Corinth  and  Ephesus  —  that  he  had  most 
to  say  about  the  church.  The  theme  of  the  pro- 
foundest  of  all  his  letters  —  that  to  the  Ephesians 
—  is  the  church  of  Christ.  To  regret  that  Paul  has 
so  much  to  say  about  the  church  is  to  repine  that 
Christianity  is  not  other  than  it  is. 
Paul's  favorite  figure  of  the  church  is  a  temple, 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      25 

and  he  loved  to  think  of  himself  as  a  master-builder. 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  foundation  stone  and  Christian 
ministers  all  build  on  him.  Christian  behevers  are 
little  temples  to  be  carefully  built  into  the  walls  of 
a  vast  temple.  "Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  a  temple  v/ 
of  God,  and  that  the  spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you  ? 
If  any  man  destroyeth  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall 
God  destroy  ;  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which 
temple  ye  are."  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  this 
figure  haunts  the  Apostle,  shaping  and  coloring  his 
language,  and  cropping  out  in  unexpected  ways  and 
places.  For  the  temples  built  of  gold  and  silver 
and  precious  stones,  Paul  substituted  the  temple  to 
be  built  of  immortal  souls;  and  to  work  for  the  en- 
largement and  adorning  of  this  temple  was  to  him 
the  greatest  privilege  which  the  good  God  can  bestow. 
It  was  the  vision  of  this  temple  with  which  he  strove 
to  inflame  the  hearts  of  his  converts,  and  by  means  of 
which  he  braced  his  own  intrepid  spirit  when  the 
sky  was  full  of  thunder.  ''Ye  are  no  more  stran- 
gers," he  cries,  ''and  sojourners,  but  ye  are  fellow 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of 
God,  being  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles 
and  prophets,  Christ  Jesus  himself  being  the  chief 
corner-stone,  in  whom  each  several  building,  fitly 
framed  together,  groweth  into  a  holy  temple  in  the 


26      CHURCH   BUILDING  IDEA   IN   NEW  TESTAMENT 

Lord ;  in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  a 
habitation  of  God  in  the  Spirit."  This  then  is  the 
work  which  the  God  and  Father  of  Jesus  Christ 
wishes  to  accompHsh,  and  his  plan  is  to  do  it  by  the 
cooperation  of  Christian  men.  Paul  considered 
not  only  himself,  but  all  church  officials  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  as  church  builders.  "And  he 
gave  some  to  be  apostles ;  and  some,  prophets ; 
and  some,  evangelists ;  and  some,  pastors  and 
teachers,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints  unto  the 
work  of  ministering  unto  the  building  up  of  the 
body  of  Christ."  The  sentence  has  been  marred  for 
English  readers  by  a  faulty  translation  and  a  mis- 
taken punctuation.  It  has  been  cut  into  three 
sections  as  though  there  were  three  separate  and 
distinct  things  which  Christian  ministers  are  or- 
dained to  do.  There  is  in  fact  only  one  thing. 
Their  work  is  to  equip  or  furnish  believers  for  the 
work  of  ministering  with  a  view  to  the  building  up 
of  the  body  of  Christ,  which  is  Paul's  name  for  the 
church.  The  building  of  the  church  is  the  supreme 
aim  of  every  minister  who  holds  Paul's  view  of  the 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry. 

The  task  of  building  belongs  to  all  behevers, 
and  in  order  to  train  behevers  in  the  art  of  build- 
ing, ministers  of  various  ranks  and  endowments  are 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      2^ 

selected  and  anointed  by  the  supreme  head  of  the 
church.  It  is  because  Paul  always  considers  himself 
a  builder  that  he  employs  so  frequently  the  word 
which  in  Latin  is  ''edify"  but  which  in  Anglo-  y 
Saxon  is  ''build."  His  conception  of  himself  as 
builder  dictates  to  him  the  vocabulary  of  his  ser- 
mons. "In  the  church  I  had  rather  speak  five 
words  with  my  understanding  that  I  might  instruct 
others  also,  than  ten  thousand  words  in  a  tongue." 
He  will  not  use  a  tongue  because  it  does  not  build 
up.  How  can  men  be  built  up  by  words  whose 
meaning  they  do  not  know?  If  a  man  forgets 
that  he  is  a  church  builder,  he  is  well-nigh  certain 
to  employ  a  tongue,  it  may  be  scientific,  or 
philosophical,  or  literary,  or  bookish,  which  while 
pleasing  to  himself  is  not  intelhgible  to  those  to 
whom  he  preaches.  If  all  Christian  preachers 
since  the  days  of  Paul  had  only  held  fast  Paul's 
conception  of  the  aim  of,.,  preaching  as  church  v/ 
building,  not  so  many  of  them  would  have  soared 
into  the  clouds  of  scintillating  phrases,  or  plunged 
into  the  muddy  depths  of  what  they  were  pleased 
to  call  "thought."  It  is  because  Paul  was  a 
builder  that  he  wrote  sentences  such  as  this,  "If 
meat  maketh  my  brother  to  stumble,  I  will  eat  no 
flesh    forevermore."    Why    not?    Because    many 


28      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

lawful  acts  are  not  expedient.  Actions  that  are 
lawful  do  not  always  build  up.  A  Christian  minister 
is  not  to  do  the  thing  which  he  has  an  abstract  right 
to  do,  but  the  thing  which  will  build  up  the  church. 
The  conception  of  church  building  then  is  the 
one  by  which  a  minister's  conduct  is  to  be  largely 
controlled  and  directed.  Whatever  builds  up  the 
church  is  good  for  a  minister  to  do,  whatever  pulls 
down  the  church  a  minister  ought  to  avoid.  The 
minister  who  stands  on  his  legal  rights  while  his 
church  slowly  disintegrates,  or  who  pushes  a  pet 
policy  even  though  he  sees  that  it  is  splitting  the 
church  asunder,  does  not  act  on  the  principle  by 
which  the  first  great  Christian  preacher  was  guided. 
It  is  possible  to  be  too  insistent  on  one's  rights,  too 
conscious  of  one's  deserts.  A  man  with  both  eyes 
open  to  his  rights  is  likely  to  be  blind  to  the  glory 
of  the  church.  Knowledge  of  one's  rights  puffs  up, 
love  for  the  church  builds  up.  .Stubbornness  and 
vanity  often  wear  the  garb  of  conscientiousness  and 
consecration.  When  the  question  arises,  "Which 
shall  be  sacrificed,  the  preacher  or  the  church?" 
the  man  who  follows  Paul  will  be  swift  to  give  the 
right  answer.  The  most  pious  of  ministers  may 
become  one  of  the  most  dangerous  and  wicked  of 
men  if  he  writes  himself   large  and    the  church 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      29 

small.    Men  who  tear  churches  to  pieces  deserve 
to  be  cast  out  with  the  publicans  and  heathen. 

But  laymen  and  preachers  are  bound   by  the 
same  principles.     Laymen  as  well  as  preachers  are 
church  builders.     A  good  definition  of  a  Christian 
would  be,  "si  builder  of  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ." 
**  Build  one  another  up,"  so  wrote  the  master  builder  j  v^ 
to  a  company  of  Christians  in  Thessalonica.     It  is  : 
an    exhortation    of    perennial    significance.     Men 
become  dilapidated  as  stone  walls  do.     The  mortar  | 
rots   and   the  stones  fall  apart.     Human   nature   \ 
crumbles  and  character  goes  to  pieces.     The  virtues    I 
of  the  soul  fall  asunder  and  men  need  to  be  rebuilt,    j 
This  is  the  work  which  Christians  must  do  for  one    | 
another,  and  it  is  a  service  in  which  the  apostle    ! 
exhorts   them   to   abound.     ''Seek    that   ye   may    ' 
abound  in  the  work  of  building  up."     "Let  each 
one  of  us  please  his  neighbor  for  that  which  is  good, 
unto  building  up "  —  so  he  wrote  to  the  members 
of  the  church  in  Rome.     "Let  us  follow  after  things 
which  make  for  peace,  and  things  whereby  we  may 
build  one  another  up"  —  this  is  the  gist  of  what  he 
said  to  all   the  churches.     Many  of  the  church 
members  of  the  first  century  had  not  grasped  the 
idea  of  building.     Religion  to  them  was  an  indi- 
vidualistic possession,  a  treasure  to  be  prized,  an 


30      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

experience  to  be  enjoyed.  They  did  not  conceive 
of  themselves  as  members  of  a  society,  organs  of 
an  organism,  stones  in  a  temple;  and  the  result  was 
frequent  discord  and  distressing  scandal.  Men 
followed  their  own  bent,  indulged  their  vanity, 
gave  vent  to  their  censorious  temper,  pulled  to 
pieces  the  unity  of  the  congregation.  In  no  church 
were  conditions  worse  than  in  the  church  in  Corinth. 
Considerateness  and  forbearance  were  virtues 
slightly  practised,  vanity  and  self-seeking  were 
vices  in  full  bloom.  To  this  church  the  grieved 
apostle  unfolds  his  idea  of  building.  He  shows 
how  the  abuses  of  public  worship  arise  —  Christians 
forget  that  they  are  builders.  He  feels  that  the 
sins  which  bring  reproach  on  the  name  of  Jesus 
would  disappear  if  men  gave  themselves  to  the 
work  of  building.  His  counsel  is  summed  up  in  the 
single  sentence:  "Let  everything  be  done  with  a 
view  to  building." 

This  is  a  fit  motto  for  a  minister  to  inscribe  above 
the  desk  on  which  he  writes  his  sermons.  The 
preacher  is  first  of  all  a  builder.  He  deals  in 
affirmations,  not  in  denials.  He  constructs,  and  only 
incidentally  tears  down.  He  is  an  architect  and 
not  an  iconoclast.  It  is  an  evil  spirit  which  takes 
delight  in  pulling  things  to  pieces.    Let  a  preacher 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      3 1 

beware  of  negations,  especially  during  the  first 
five  years  of  his  ministry.  Youth  has  a  fatal  fond- 
ness for  negations.  Let  the  beginning  preacher 
preach  what  he  beheves,  and  not  tomahawk  the 
doctrines  which  he  has  discarded.  The  preacher 
who  brandishes  an  axe  in  the  eyes  of  his  congrega- 
tion, hewing  down  with  glee  discredited  dogmas  and 
outgrown  interpretations,  need  not  be  surprised  if 
the  church  is  shaken  and  his  pulpit  is  rendered  in- 
secure, f  It  is  not  courage,  but  lack  of  sense,  which 
usually  gets  preachers  into  trouble. )  Laymen  are 
as  a  rule  not  unwilling  to  Hsten  to  new  conceptions 
which  have  a  show  of  reasonableness;  but  the 
man  who  tears  to  pieces  their  old  truth  with  a 
chuckle  and  stamps  upon  it  with  a  whoop  is  sure 
to  be  resisted.  It  is  not  in  human  nature  to  relish 
reiterated  and  gloating  declarations  that  nearly 
all  one's  old  beliefs  are  both  false  and  silly.  If  a 
man  has  really  worked  his  way  into  broader  and 
nobler  conceptions,  let  him  give  his  new  vision  in 
such  a  way  that  the  church  shall  be  lifted  up  and 
strengthened.  Let  every  sentence  of  the  sermon 
be  written  with  a  view,  not  to  pulling  down  men  who 
are  dead,  but  to  building  up  men  who  are  alive. 
The  words  which  might  profitably  be  written  across 
the   preacher's   study   wall   might   wisely   be   in- 


32      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

scribed  in  characters  of  gold  before  the  eyes  of  all 
the  congregation.  What  a  transformation  there  will 
be  in  public  worship,  what  a  revolution  in  many  a 
disciple's  life,  and  what  a  reformation  in  the 
whole  temper  and  conduct  of  many  a  Christian 
congregation,  when  once  the  idea  is  firmly  grasped 
that  all  the  followers  of  Jesus,  both  the  man  in  the 
pulpit  and  the  men  in  the  pew,  have  for  their  heaven- 
appointed  mission  the  building  of  the  church  ! 

Whence  did  Paul  get  his  idea  of  church  building  ? 
Whence  did  it  come  to  Peter  ?  To  Peter  also  the 
church  is  the  family  of  God,  and  his  two  exhorta- 
tions stand  side  by  side  :  "Love  the  brotherhood, 
Fear  God."  To  Peter  likewise  the  church  is  a 
living  temple.  To  Peter,  no  less  than  to  Paul, 
Jesus  is  the  foundation  stone,  the  stone  rejected 
but  chosen  of  God  and  precious,  upon  which  living 
stone  believers  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house.  To 
Peter's  eyes  also  the  glory  has  vanished  from  temples 
made  with  hands,  and  now  resides  in  the  spiritual 
temple,  the  church  of  the  living  God.  Whence  came 
this  passionate  devotion  to  the  church,  and  how 
did  it  happen  that  both  apostles  loved  to  think  of 
it  as  a  building  ?  The  source  of  both  the  conception 
and  the  passion  was  undoubtedly  the  Son  of  God. 
It  was  at  Caesarea  Philippi  —  so  Matthew  tells  us 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      33 

—  at  a  critical  moment  in  Jesus'  life,  when  there 
occurred  a  twofold  confession.     The  first  was  by 
Simon  Peter,  ''Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
Living  God."     This  was  the  first  full-toned  recogni- 
tion by  man  of  the  heavenly  origin  and  character  of 
Jesus.   For  this  Jesus  had  been  waiting.     It  is  now 
time  for  him  to  make  his  confession.     "Blessed 
art   thou,  Simon   Bar-Jona :    for  flesh  and   blood 
hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  father  which 
is  in  heaven.     And  I  also  say  unto  thee,  that  thou 
art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church  : 
and  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 
There   is   an   enthusiasm   in   these   words   which 
glows  and  flashes.    They  carry  in  their  body  the 
leaping  joy  of  an  exultant  spirit.     The  declaration 
fell  upon  the  air  with  the  thrill  of  a  new  revelation. 
One  feels  that  a  secret  long  held  back  has  leaped  into 
the  light.     A  man  has  at  last  recognized  the  presence 
of  the  world's  Messiah,  and  to  him  and  to  his  com- 
rades who  share  his  insight  and  conviction  is  now 
revealed  what  the  Messiah  has  come  to  earth  to  do. 
It  is  his  purpose  to  estabHsh  a  society,  a  brotherhood, 
an  institution  which  shall  incorporate   his   spirit 
and  perpetuate  his  work.    The  revelation  was  not 
given  to  the  crowd.    The  crowd  could  not  under- 
stand it  or  make  use  of  it.     The  highest  truths  are 


34      CHURCH  BUILDING  IDEA  IN  NEW  TESTAMENT 

reserved  for  those  who  have  ears  to  hear.  The 
twelve  did  not  at  first  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  the 
words  spoken  at  Caesar ea  Philippi.  They  under- 
stood them  better  after  the  Day  of  Pentecost. 
They  are  words  which  even  now  are  often  imper- 
fectly apprehended.  They  express  a  plan  of  God 
which  can  be  only  spiritually  discerned. 

Arguments  are  sometimes  urged  to  prove  that  the 
church  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  Jesus.  He 
cared  only  for  ideas  —  men  say  —  and  the  Christian 
church  was  an  after-thought  of  his  ambitious 
followers.  As  evidence  for  the  soundness  of  this 
contention,  it  is  said  in  triumph  that  Jesus  never  so 
much  as  mentioned  the  church  but  twice,  conse- 

j/  quently  he  cared  nothing  for  it.  It  is  indeed  a 
wooden  principle  of  interpretation,  just  now  in  vogue, 
which  measures  the  importance  of  a  fact  by  the 
number  of  times  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures. 
This  is  surrendering  the  use  of  intellect  and  settling 
difficult  and  spiritual  questions  by  rule  of  thumb. 
It  would  seem  then  that  he  knows  best  the  meaning 
of  the  New  Testament  who  is  quickest  in  the  art  of 
counting.  But  a  thing  may  exist  without  the  name, 
and  a  mere  mathematician  will  never  understand 

J  the  gospels.  Many  things  of  moment  Jesus  never 
dealt  with  at  all,  because  those  lessons  had  been 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      35 

already  learned.  There  are  wide  gaps  in  his  re- 
corded sayings  because  much  was  taken  for  granted 
by  the  men  who  wrote  the  gospels.  That  a  religion 
could  live  and  conquer  without  organization  and 
without  officials  was  an  idea  unthinkable  to  every 
first  century  Jew.  Moreover  there  were  subjects 
about  which  Jesus  could  not  speak  in  pubHc  without 
hastening  a  crisis.  One  of  such  subjects  was  his 
Messiahship.  He  announced  it  so  guardedly  and  so 
incidentally  that  certain  New  Testament  scholars 
have  declared  that  he  never  taught  it  at  all.  It  was 
a  fact  to  be  spiritually  apprehended  and  left  to 
make  its  way  in  the  world  by  the  power  of  its  own 
spirit.  To  have  shouted  it  from  the  housetop  would 
have  forced  forward  the  last  act  of  the  drama. 
What  is  true  of  his  Messiahship  is  true  also  of  his 
church.  How  could  he  have  spoken  of  his  church 
before  the  bigoted  devotees  of  the  Jewish  church 
without  precipitating  the  tragedy  which  it  was 
necessary  for  a  season  to  postpone?  Things  held 
in  reserve  are  not  therefore  unimportant.  It  may 
be  their  tremendous  importance  which  makes  neces- 
sary the  reticence  concerning  them.  Jesus  did  not 
speak  of  the  church  in  pubUc  for  reasons  perfectly 
clear,  preferring  to  use  terms  which  would  excite 
least  suspicion  and  create  least  irritation  in  the 


36      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

hearts  he  was  trying  to  reach.  But  while  he  made 
no  public  announcement,  he  pondered  the  church 
in  his  heart  and  gave  himself  unreservedly,  from  the 
day  at  Caesarea  Philippi  onward,  to  the  knitting 
of  the  souls  of  twelve  men  into  a  brotherhood, 
which  should  go  on  enlarging  until  it  had  embraced 
the  world.  To  a  man  whose  eyes  are  not  holden,  the 
church  is  a  towering  and  ubiquitous  fact  of  the 
gospels.  In  the  upper  chamber,  on  the  last  night, 
it  is  to  his  church  that  Jesus  speaks.  To  it  and  it 
only  he  gives  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
for  it  and  it  only  he  offers  his  high-priestly  prayer ; 
to  it  and  it  only  he  presents  himself  after  his  resur- 
rection, and  to  it  and  only  to  it  he  gives  the  great 
commission.  '^Go,  disciple  the  nations."  Not  to 
any  individual  believer,  but  to  the  society  of 
behevers,  is  the  assurance  granted  of  ultimate  and 
unimaginable  victory. 

When  it  is  said  that  Jesus  did  not  found  the 
church,  language  is  used  which  heeds  explanation. 
If  by  founding  the  church  is  meant  giving  to  a  set 
of  men  a  definite  constitution  and  by-laws,  with 
minute  regulations  as  to  polity  and  officials,  then  one 
may  correctly  say  that  Jesus  did  not  found  the 
church.  But  when  one  considers  his  work  upon  the 
twelve,  and  what  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  did 


CHURCH   BUILDING    IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      37 

immediately  after  the  Spirit  —  his  Spirit  —  had 
come  upon  them,  which  Spirit  he  had  expressly 
declared  would  lead  them  into  truth,  one  is  driven 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  Jesus  who  organized 
the  Christian  church,  and  that  he  and  he  alone 
can  rightfully  be  called  its  Founder.  If  we  are 
to  accept  the  book  of  the  Acts  as  authentic  history, 
and  are  to  beheve  in  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  then  we  cannot  escape  the  conclusion  that  the 
organization  of  the  church  was  the  act  of  Jesus, 
because  the  men  who  were  the  nearest  to  him  in 
life  and  in  death,  and  who  were  flooded  with  his 
spirit  after  a  cloud  had  received  him  from  their 
sight,  threw  themselves  at  once  into  the  work  of 
organizing  beHevers  into  churches  baptized  into  his 
name.  The  promise  had  been  :  ''The  Holy  Spirit 
shall  take  the  things  of  mine  and  show  them  un- 
to you,"  and  the  first  thing  shown  to  them  was  the 
Christian  church.  The  church  is  the  inevitable 
and  indestructible  creation  of  Christ's  spirit.  That 
he  founded  it  and  that  it  is  the  expression  of  his 
will,  is  also  evidenced  by  Christian  experience.  His- 
tory proves  that  the  continuance  of  Christianity 
is  dependent  upon  the  church.  The  church  is  an 
essential  constituent  of  the  Christian  religion.  The 
principles  of  Jesus  do  not  enthrone  themselves  in 


38      CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT 

human  society  without  the  assistance  of  the  church. 
The  church  is  in  literal  truth  the  body  of  Jesus. 
Without  it  he  does  no  mighty  deeds.  The  amount 
of  work  which  he  accomplishes  in  every  country  is 
conditioned  on  the  character  of  the  church  in  that 
country.  The  kind  of  service  he  performs  in  any 
community  is  determined  by  the  character  of  the 
Christian  society  in  that  community.  Whenever 
V  the  church  prospers,  society  improves.  Whenever  the 
church  languishes,  society  degenerates.  When  the 
church  is  vigorous  and  spiritual,  the  social  atmos- 
phere becomes  bracing  and  clear;  when  the  church 
becomes  worldly  and  corrupt,  the  sun  is  turned  into 
darkness  and  the  moon  into  blood.  ^  The  principles 
of  Jesus  take  root  in  pagan  lands  only  when  they  are 
planted  there  and  watered  by  the  church.  The 
gospel  would  never  have  gotten  out  of  Palestine 
had  it  not  been  for  the  Christian  brotherhood,  nor 
out  of  Europe  into  England  had  it  not  been  for  the 
church,  nor  out  of  the  Old  World  into  the  New  had 
the  church  not  sent  it.  There  is  no  hope  for  the 
triumph  of  the  Christian  religion  outside  the  church. 
Therefore,  "I  will  build  my  church."  It  is  his. 
He  is  the  architect.  Preachers  in  hours  of  despon- 
dency should  listen  to  him  saying  :  ^'I  will  build  my 
church."     ''Unless  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they 


CHURCH   BUILDING   IDEA   IN   NEW   TESTAMENT      39 

labor  in  vain  who  build  it."  He  is  at  work.  The 
church  is  no  little  private  enterprise  of  ours.  It  is 
his.  We  are  colaborers  with  him.  He  is  ever  by 
our  side.  The  gates  of  death  shall  not  prevail. 
Critics  rage  and  brilliant  writers  imagine  a  vain 
thing.  Kings  and  rulers  in  divers  realms  take 
counsel  together  and  agree  that  the  glory  of  the 
church  is  departing.  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens 
laughs.  The  Lord  holds  them  in  derision.  The 
church  is  not  .obsolescent.  Humanity  has  not  out- 
grown it.  Its  noon  is  not  behind  it.  Its  triumphal 
career  has  only  begun.  We  are  toiling  amid  the 
mists  of  the  early  morning.  It  is  the  rising  sun 
which  smites  our  foreheads,  and  we  cannot  even 
dream  of  the  glory  which  is  to  be.  We  work  upon 
an  enduring  institution.  After  the  flags  of  republics 
and  empires  have  been  blown  to  tatters,  and  the 
earth  itself  has  tasted  death,  the  church  of  Jesus 
shall  stand  forth  glorious,  free  from  blemish  and 
mark  of  decay,  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  prevail 
against  it.  Therefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  in 
these  confused  and  confusing  days,  be  steadfast, 
immovable  in  the  presence  of  the  world's  clamor  and 
rancor,  always  building  your  life  and  the  Kves  of  as 
many  as  God  intrusts  to  your  keeping,  into  the 
church  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  you  know  that 
such  labor  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 


LECTURE  II 
BUILDING  THE  BROTHERHOOD 


BUILDING  THE  BROTHERHOOD 

"Brotherhood"  is  St.  Peter's  name  for  the 
church.  The  conception  of  the  church  held  by  the 
leader  of  the  Twelve  and  the  man  to  whom  our  Lord 
first  promised  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  is  deserv- 
ing of  sustained  attention.  That  members  of  the 
church  are  brothers,  St.  Peter  everywhere  takes 
for  granted.  "  Be  ye  all  like-minded,  compassionate, 
loving  as  brothers,  tender-hearted,  humble-minded" 
—  this  sums  up  his  idea  of  the  disposition  which 
church  members  should  have  toward  one  another. 
He  has  many  bits  of  advice  to  give  his  converts, 
but  this  is  chief :  "Above  all  things  be  fervent 
in  your  love  among  yourselves.  Honor  all  men. 
Love  the  brotherhood." 

St.  John  holds  the  same  conception.  To  him  the 
church  is  a  band  of  brothers,  and  the  first  duty  of 
church  members  is  loving  one  another.  There  is 
Httle  else  that  the  beloved  apostle  cares  to  write. 
"He  that  loveth  his  brother  abideth  in  the  light." 
"We  know  that  we  have  passed  out  of  death  into 
life  because  we  love  the  brethren."     "We  ought 

43 


44  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren."  ^^This 
is  his  commandment,  that  we  should  believe  in  the 
name  of  his  son  Jesus  Christ,  and  love  one  another." 
"Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another."  '^If  God  so 
loved  us  we  also  ought  to  love  one  another." 
"If  a  man  say,  I  love  God  and  hateth  his  brother, 
he  is  a  liar  ;  for  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom 
he  hath  seen,  cannot  love  God  whom  he  hath  not 
seen."  "This  commandment  have  we  from  him 
that  he  who  loveth  God,  love  his  brother  also." 
With  St.  John's  writings  before  us,  it  is  easy  to 
beHeve  the  tradition  that  when  he  was  old,  unable 
any  longer  to  walk,  the  young  men  in  the  church 
in  Ephesus  were  wont  to  carry  him  before  the 
people,  to  whom  he  repeated  again  and  again, 
"Little  children,  love  one  another."  When  they 
asked  him  why  he  said  this  so  many  times,  his  reply 
was,  "Because  it  is  the  Lord's  precept,  and  if  only 
it  be  done,  it  is  enough." 
J  St.  Paul  was  not  in  the  upper  chamber  when  the 
Twelve  received  the  new  commandment,  but  his 
conception  of  the  church  is  identical  with  that  of 
John  and  Peter.  To  Paul  the  church  is  a  brother- 
hood. "Concerning  love  of  the  brethren,"  Paul 
writes  to  the  church  in  Thessalonica,  "ye  have  no 
need  that  one  write  unto  you,  for  ye  yourselves 


BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD  45 

are  taught  of  God  to  love  one  another ;  for  indeed 
ye  do  it  toward  all  the  brethren  which  are  in  all 
Macedonia.     But  we  exhort  you,  brethren,  that  ye 
abound  more  and  more."     This  is  his  exhortation 
to  all  Christians  and  he  gives  expression  to  it  again 
and  again,    ''In  love  of  the  brethren  be  tenderly 
affectioned  one  to  another  ;  in  honor  preferring  one 
another."     It  is  only  as  Christians  are  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love  that  they  are  ''strong  to  appre- 
hend with  all  the  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and 
length  and  height  and  depth,  and  to  know  the  love 
of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge."     In  his  first 
letter  to  the  Corinthians,  Paul's  conception  of  love 
breaks  into  language  of  unsurpassed  and  unforget- 
table splendor.     He  declares  what  love  is,  how  it 
acts,    feels,    thinks,    and   what   victories   it   wins. 
Without  it,  no  matter  what  else  we  possess,  we 
have  nothing.     This  was  written   to  the  church 
which  was  most  deficient  in  that  which  is   the 
distinctive  treasure  of  a  Christian  church.     Unless  \' 
a  church  is  a  brotherhood,  a  company  of  men  and  j 
wonien  whose  sympathies  and  purposes  are  inter-  | 
twined,  and  whose  lives  are  interlaced  and  blended,  I 
we  may  call  it  a  Christian  church,  but  it  does  not  j 
bear  in  the  body  of  its  life  the  marks  of  the  Lordj 
Jesus.  '  • 


46  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

Whence  did  these  three  preachers  get  their  con- 
ception of  the  church  ?  They  preached  only  what 
they  received.  It  was  Jesus'  habit  to  remind  his 
disciples  that  he  was  their  Master  and  that  all 
they  were  brethren.  The  crowning  period  of  his 
life  was  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  the  task  of 
knitting  together  the  hearts  of  the  men  who  were  to 
constitute  the  nucleus  of  his  church.  How  heavy 
this  burden  lay  upon  his  heart  is  seen  in  his  behavior 
and  words  in  the  upper  chamber.  All  along  the 
way  that  day,  there  had  been  outbreaks  of  temper 
on  the  part  of  the  twelve,  and  the  old  spirit  of  ill- 
will  crops  out  again  as  they  take  their  places  round 
the  table.  The  feast  cannot  go  on.  Christ  can 
hold  no  festival  except  where  hearts  are  sweet.  He 
takes  a  basin  and  a  towel  and  proceeds  to  bathe  the 
disciples'  feet,  not  because  he  cares  for  the  dust 
on  their  feet,  but  because  he  is  pained  by  the 
estrangement  of  their  hearts.  This  done,  he  an- 
nounces a  commandment  which  is  to  take  precedence 
over  all  the  instructions  which  he  has  hitherto  given 
them.  ''A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you, 
that  ye  love  one  another ;  even  as  I  have  loved 
you,  that  ye  also  love  one  another.  By  this  shall 
all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have 
love  one   to   another."     This  is  indeed   startling 


BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD  47 

teaching.  Let  all  who  would  preach  the  gospel 
read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest  it.  The 
distinctive  note  of  the  Christian  life  is  here  pro- 
claimed to  be  love  for  one's  fellow-Christians. 
A  man  proves  himself  a  Christian,  not  by  loving 
men  in  general,  but  by  loving  his  brethren  in  Christ. 
The  first  and  inevitable  fruit  of  an  instructed  Chris- 
tian heart  is  love  for  one's  brother  Christians. 
This  is  a  truth  which  our  Lord  labored  unceasingly 
to  make  clear  to  his  disciples.  The  things  which 
are  uppermost  in  one's  mind  are  likely  to  come  out 
in  his  prayers.  They  are  sure  to  emerge  in  the 
prayers  which  one  offers  in  the  presence  of  death. 
Listen  then  to  the  last  prayer  of  Jesus.  He  prays 
that  his  disciples  may  be  one.  He  prays  for  it 
again  and  again.  It  is  the  one  longing  which  throbs 
through  his  w^hole  prayer.  The  outside  world 
passes  for  a  season  out  of  his  thought.  The  nations 
and  their  needs  sink  below  the  horizon.  He  thinks 
only  of  his  church,  of  the  men  who  are  there  in  his 
presence,  and  of  the  multitudes  who  will  beHeve  on 
him  through  their  word.  He  can  conceive  of  no 
higher  blessing  for  them  than  commimion  of  spirit, 
comradeship  in  heart,  union  in  love.  "That  they 
may  all  be  one,  even  as  thou  Father  art  in  me  and  I 
in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us  :  that  the 


48  BXnLDING  THE  BROTHERHOOD 

world  may  believe  that  thou  didst  send  me." 
Fellowship,  then,  is  to  be  the  proof  of  the  divine 
power  of  Jesus,  evidence  to  the  world  that  he  came 
from  heaven.  The  world  is  not  to  be  convinced  and 
converted  by  reasoning  or  philosophy  or  eloquence, 
but  by  the  love  of  Christians  for  one  another. 
"The  glory  which  thou  hast  given  me  I  have  given 
imto  them  ;  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are 
one ;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be 
perfected  into  one  :  that  the  world  may  know  that 
thou  didst  send  me,  and  lovedst  them,  even  as  thou 
lovedst  me.''  This  is  amazing  doctrine.  It  sounds 
novel  even  now.  Christ  declares  his  mission  to  be 
the  binding  of  men  together  by  indissoluble  bonds. 
It  is  by  the  brotherliness  of  those  who  believe  in 
Jesus  that  the  hard  heart  of  the  world  is  to  be 
softened  and  the  truthfulness  of  Jesus'  words 
established.  The  world  is  to  be  brought  to  Grod 
by  Christians  loving  one  another. 

It  is  incontrovertible  that,  according  to  the  New 
Testament,  the  men  who  were  baptized  into  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  looked  upon  the  church  from  the 
beginning  as  a  brotherhood  or  family.  The  vocabu- 
lary and  customs  of  home  life  were  carried  over  into 
the  church.  The  church  was  known  as  the  house- 
hold of  faith,  the  family  of  God.     Christians  called 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  49 

one  another  not  "Christians,"  but  ''brethren,"  and 
after  the  fashion  of  Eastern  lands  they  greeted  one 
another  at  their  meetings  with  a  kiss.  In  their  assem- 
blies they  gathered  round  a  common  table,  enjoying 
a  love-feast  together.  The  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  linked  to  the  dinner  table,  the  central 
social  institution  in  the  home.  The  church's  most 
sacred  ceremony  was  a  reminder  that  believers  be- 
long to  one  another.  The  church  was  a  communion 
of  brothers.  High  in  the  list  of  graces  stood  the 
grace  of  hospitality.  Christians  when  they  travelled 
were  never  to  find  themselves  away  from  home. 
All  congregations  of  beHevers  were  to  be  bound  to- 
gether by  sacred  and  spiritual  ties,  and  thus  was  the 
Lord's  prayer  to  be  fulfilled.  A  favorite  name 
for  "church"  in  the  early  Christian  centuries  was 
"Brotherhood."    Alas,  that  it  was  ever  lost ! 

When  we  close  the  New  Testament  and  look 
around  us,  we  find  ourselves  in  a  different  world. 
There  is  a  change  in  the  atmosphere  which  is 
chilling.  The  Roman  CathoHc  idea  of  the  church  is 
not  the  idea  of  Peter.  Her  definition  of  the  church 
as  phrased  by  Cardinal  Bellarmine  is:  "The 
one  and  true  church  is  the  congregation  of  men 
united  by  the  profession  of  the  same  Christian  faith 
and  the  communion  of  the  same  sacraments  under 


50  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

the  rule  of  the  legitimate  pastors,  and  especially  the 
one  vicar  of  Christ  upon  earth."  Everything 
mentioned  in  this  definition  is  external.  Love 
has  no  stated  place  at  all.  In  Roman  Catholic 
practice  the  church  is  essentially  a  hierarchy,  the 
officials  being  exalted  far  above  the  laity,  constitut- 
ing a  class  apart,  while  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Lord's  followers,  often  reduced  to  the  level  of  mere 
spectators,  come  to  God  only  through  the  hierarchy. 
How  different  Christian  history  would  have  been, 
if  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixteenth  century  the  men 
who  claimed  to  sit  in  Peter's  chair  had  followed 
Peter,  and  had  said  to  all  priests:  "Tend  the 
flock  of  God,  exercising  the  oversight,  not  of  con- 
straint, but  willingly,  according  unto  God ;  nor 
yet  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind  ;  neither 
as  lording  it  over  the  charge  allotted  to  you,  but 
making  yourselves  ensamples  to  the  flock,"  and 
to  all  congregations,  "Love  as  brethren,  have 
fervent  love  among  yourselves,  love  the  brother- 
hood." 

Nor  has  Protestantism  ever  read  with  unclouded 
eye  what  the  New  Testament  says  about  the  church. 
The  definition  formulated  by  the  AngHcan  church 
and  adopted  by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  and 
Methodist  Episcopal  churches  reads  thus:    "The 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  5 1 

Visible  church  of  Christ  is  a  congregation  of  faithful 
men,  in  the  which  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached, 
and  the  sacraments  be  duly  administered  according 
to  Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that  of 
necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same."  The  West- 
minster Confession  says  :  ''The  Catholic  or  univer- 
sal church,  which  is  invisible,  consists  of  the  whole 
number  of  the  elect  that  have  been,  are,  or  shall  be 
gathered  into  one,  under  Christ,  the  head  thereof ; 
and  is  the  spouse,  the  body,  the  fulness  of  him  that 
filleth  all  in  all.  The  visible  church,  which  is  also 
cathohc  or  universal  under  the  gospel,  consists  of  all 
those  throughout  the  world,  that  profess  the  true 
religion,  and  of  their  children  ;  and  is  the  kingdom 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  house  and  family  of 
God,  out.  of  which  there  is  no  ordinary  possibility 
of  salvation."  These  definitions  reappear  with 
minor  variations  in  most  of  the  creeds  of  Protestant 
Christendom.  The  two  features  of  the  church 
which  Protestants  have  made  conspicuous  are  the 
preaching  of  the  word  and  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  But  preaching  is  not  sufficient  to 
make  a  church,  nor  is  the  proper  "administration  of 
the  sacraments.  That  a  definition  of  the  church 
should  have  in  it  no  reference  to  what  the  Head 
of  the  church  counts  fundamental  is  indeed  calami- 


52  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

tous.  When  did  Jesus  magnify  sacraments  and 
sermons,  passing  by  the  obUgations  and  ministries 
of  love?  The  alleged  ''one  vicar  of  Christ  upon 
earth"  does  not  make  a  church,  nor  does  a  bishop, 
nor  a  preacher,  nor  a  man  who  baptizes,  nor  an 
official  who  offers  a  prayer  over  the  bread  and  the 
wine.  A  church  is  a  brotherhood,  a  school  for 
training  in  fellowship,  a  home  for  the  cultivation 
of  the  social  virtues  and  the  human  graces,  a  society 
in  which  men  are  bound  together  in  sympathy  and 
holy  service  by  a  common  allegiance  to  the  Son  of 
God.  It  is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men,  ever 
striving  to  learn  and  live  the  new  commandment, 
looking  unto  Jesus  for  power  to  understand  and 
practice  the  law  of  love.  The  new  commandment 
is  the  standard  by  which  all  churches  must  be 
measured,  and  in  the  Hght  of  this  standard  the 
church  universal  knows  herself  to  be  poor  and  blind 
and  naked.  Many  city  churches  are  made  up  of 
people  who  do  not  even  know  one  another,  and 
who  do  not  want  to  know  one  another.  Too  many 
village  churches  are  composed  of  people  who  know 
one  another,  and  are  sorry  that  they  do.  The 
very  thing  which  the  New  Testament  asserts  to 
be  the  one  thing  needful,  and  without  which  the 
world  cannot  be  won  for  Christ,  is  the  thing  which 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  53 

is  to-day  least  abundant.  To  create  an  ampler  and 
a  warmer  fellowship  inside  the  church  of  Jesus  is  the 
first  work  for  which  preachers  are  ordained,  and 
yet  many  of  them,  instead  of  staying  at  home  and 
attending  to  their  business,  have  gone  scampering 
off  in  wild  crusades  against  the  distant  Saracens, 
wasting  their  strength  in  frenzied  efforts  to  recon- 
struct by  a  furious  blowing  of  trumpets  the  economic 
and  social  order.  There  are  many  congregations,  let 
us  be  thankful,  in  which  the  new  commandment  is 
imderstood  and  honored,  and  it  is  these  congrega- 
tions which  constitute  the  hope  of  Christendom. 
They  hold  in  their  hand  the  key  which  unlocks  all 
the  doors.  They  possess  the  secret  for  which  the 
world  is  waiting.  No  churches,  let  us  hope,  are 
altogether  devoid  of  the  love  for  which  the  Master 
and  his  apostles  pleaded.  Even  in  congregations 
which  seem  paralyzed  or  dead,  there  is  usually 
at  the  centre  a  Kttle  circle  of  loyal  and  devoted 
believers,  whose  hearts  have  been  fused  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  whose  lives  have  been  blended  by 
fellowship  in  Christian  work  and  prayer.  To 
extend  this  circle  of  lovers,  whether  it  be  larger  or 
smaller,  and  endow  it  with  a  fuller  measure  of  wis- 
dom and  power  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  distinctive 
and  crucial  work  of  the  Christian  minister.     It  is 


54  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

the  work  which  the  Master  did,   and  he  says, 
"Follow  me!" 

There  are  probably  few  important  sentences  in 
the  gospels  used  so  seldom  by  Christian  ilito^Jws 
as  texts  for  sermons  as  is  the  golden  sentence  of 
our  Lord  :  "Love  one  another,  even  as  I  have  loved 
you."  It  seems  to  be  a  difficult  sentence  to  find, 
and  even  more  difficult  to  understand.  It  is  often 
made  to  mean  something  different  from  what  it 
teaches.  A  common  interpretation  makes  it  equiv- 
alent to  "love  all  men  everywhere."  But  such  an 
exposition  empties  it  of  its  content,  and  robs  it  of 
its  power  to  accomplish  the  work  which  Jesus  had  in 
mind.  He  is  not  exhorting  here  to  a  vague  humani- 
tarianism  or  a  wholesale  philanthropy.  He  is  not 
proclaiming  the  brotherhood  of  man.  He  is  not 
thinking  of  men  in  general.  He  is  speaking  to 
members  of  his  church,  and  telling  them  how  to 
live  together  so  as  to  convince  the  world  that  he  is 
what  he  claims  to  be.  Victory  for  his  cause  is  to  be 
achieved  by  their  love  for  one  another.  It  is  no 
ordinary  love  which  is  called  for,  but  love  fashioned 
after  his  own,  and  lifted  to  its  white  intensity  and 
heavenly  temper.  A  Christian  owes  something 
to  a  fellow-Christian  which  he  owes  to  no  other 
human  being,  his  first  duty  is  to  his  fellow-believers, 


g|^         BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  55 

his  %S  obligation  is  to  his  Christian  brethren,  his 
first  Ifcicern  is  with  his  comrades  in  Christ.  It  is 
by  Cfcistians  loving  one  another  after  the  sacrificial 
manrlll  of  Jesus  that  other  men  are  to  become 
Chris tmns.  Love  is  the  law  of  the  church.  Love 
is  the  badge  of  discipleship.  Love  is  the  chief 
evan^eUst  and  head  worker.  Love  is  the  power 
which  overcomes.  It  is  not  love  for  the  community 
or  love  for  humanity,  but  love  for  one's  fellow- 
Christians  by  which  the  door  of  the  world's  heart  is 
to  be  opened.  The  teaching  was  plain  and  the 
early  Christians  caught  it.  The  secret  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  early  church  lies  revealed  in  the  excla- 
mation of  the  pagan  crowd  —  ''Behold  how  these 
Christians  love  one  another  !" 

The  primary  work  of  a  preacher,  then,  is  the 
cultivation  by  word  and  deed  of  the  spirit  of 
Christlike  brotherhness  among  the  members  of 
his  own  church.  Many  ministers  shrink  from  this 
work  as  something  narrowing  and  unworthy.  The 
very  statement  that  such  is  a  minister's  work 
sounds  like  heresy  and  arouses  antagonism  and 
revulsion  in  many  hearts.  Such  teaching  seems 
like  harking  back  to  the  dark  ages.  The  brother- 
hood of  man  and  not  the  brotherhood  of  Christians 
is  the  doctrine  which  our  century  is  ready  to  hear. 


56  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

All  men  are  our  brothers.  A  man  who  is  up  to  date 
will  make  no  distinctions  but  will  love  everybody 
alike.  Let  a  preacher,  therefore,  exhort  his  people 
continually  to  love  humanity,  being  careful  to  lay 
no  special  emphasis,  as  a  New  Testament  writer 
mistakenly  did,  upon  those  who  belong  to  the  house- 
hold of  faith.  It  is  just  here  that  many  a  minister 
makes  his  greatest  mistake.  In  his  eagerness  to  be 
broad  he  becomes  narrow.  In  ignoring  limitations 
prescribed  by  the  Lord  of  life  he  becomes  feeble. 
By  trying  to  do  too  much  he  achieves  nothing.  In 
his  Hberality  he  wipes  out  distinctions  which  cannot 
be  repudiated  without  loss.  In  his  zeal  to  rise 
aboYfi^ boundaries,  he  loses  himself  in  the  clouds. 
Nothing  is  more  essential  to  a  preacher  in  our 
day  than  an  understanding  of  the  function  and 
power  of  limitations.  It  is  only  as  a  man  is  willing 
j  to  confine  himself  within  narrow  Hmits  that  he 
j  can  do  any  mighty  work.  Men  all  round  us  are 
^mttering  away  their  lives  because  of  their  vagueness. 
Sermons  in  appalling  numbers  amount  to  little 
because  of  their  generalities.  Definiteness  in 
thought  and  action  is  the  thing  above  all  things 
for  the  twentieth  century  preacher  to  cultivate. 
Concentration  is  the  supreme  prudence  of  ministe- 
rial life.    It  is  easy  to  declaim  eloquently  about  the 


BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD  57 

brotherhood  of  man,  but  much  that  is  said  upon 
that  subject  is  vapid  and  futile.  The  air  is  full  of 
talk  about  brotherhood,  but  brotherhood  does 
not  come  by  poetic  quotations  and  rhapsodical 
orating.  Brotherhood  is  a  spiritual  creation,  the 
work  of  men  who  have  been  recreated  in  Christ. 
It  is  a  fellowship  of  souls  based  upon  a  fellowship 
with  God's  only-begotten  Son.  The  redemption  of 
the  world  is  carried  onward  by  the  binding  of 
Christian  hearts  and  lives  together.  To  Paul, 
fellowship  was  everything.  His  letters  were  full 
of  it  because  his  heart  was  overflowing.  To  get  the 
members  of  the  local  church  closer  together,  and  the 
churches  of  each  region  closer  together,  and  the 
churches  of  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  worlds  closer 
together  —  this  was  the  object  of  his  labors  and 
prayers.  Christianity  to  him  is  fellowship  in  the 
Lord.  Without  fellowship  faith  is  empty,  hope  is 
darkened,  love  is  starved.  It  is  through  the 
conomunion  of  saints  that  this  world  and  all  worlds 
are  to  see  what  God  is  and  what  he  is  able  to  do. 

Do  not  be  afraid,  then,  to  preach  boldly  the 
doctrine  of  the  new  commandment.  Preach  it  just 
as  the  Lord  himself  taught  it.  Count  it  your  joy 
to  train  the  members  of  your  church  in  the  fine  art 
of  living  together.    It  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  the 


58  BUILDING   THE    BROTHERHOOD 

arts,  and  the  church  is  the  school  ordained  of  God 
for  perfecting  men  in  this  art.  You  are  not  doing  a 
narrow  work  when  you  teach  the  members  of  your 
church  the  range  and  wealth  of  Christian  fellowship. 
The  church  is  the  world  in  miniature.  In  it  exist 
all  the  forces  and  relationships,  the  entanglements 
and  evils,  which  the  world  as  a  whole  presents. 
There  is  not  a  world  evil  which  can  be  anywhere  so 
effectively  attacked  as  within  the  church  of  Christ. 
There  is  not  an  industrial  or  social  or  racial  prob- 
lem which  can  be  dealt  with  outside  so  profoundly 
as  inside  the  Christian  brotherhood.  When  you 
straighten  out  the  tangled  relations  of  your  church 
members  to  one  another,  you  are  contributing  to 
the  solution  of  social  problems  everywhere.  When 
you  soften  class  antipathies  and  racial  antagonisms 
within  your  congregation,  you  are  helping  to  solve 
the  most  baffling  of  the  world  compHcations.  When 
you  induce  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  to  live 
together  as  brethren  in  your  own  church  commun- 
ion, you  are  hastening  the  day  when  men  the  wide 
world  over  shall  be  brothers.  Humanity  is  in  the 
making,  and  the  church  is  the  institution  in  which 
society  is  moulded  into  nobler  forms  and  fitted  for 
finer  issues.  When  Paul  built  a  slave  into  the 
brotherhood  at  Colossae,  he  signed  the  death  war- 


BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD  59 

rant  for  slavery  in  England  and  America.  When 
Jesus  induced  twelve  men  differing  from  one 
another  widely  in  temperament,  idea,  and  social 
standing  to  sit  down  together  in  an  upper  chamber 
in  Jerusalem,  he  contributed  to  the  solution  of  the 
social  problem  in  every  city  throughout  the  world. 
It  is  impossible  to  kindle  a  fire  on  your  church 
hearth  without  the  world  feehng  the  warmth  of  it. 
But  you  cannot  kindle  a  fire  unless  you  bring  the 
fagots  together.  The  minister's  first  business  is  to 
get  his  people  together.  Let  him  preach  to  his 
church,  and  his  church,  when  converted,  will 
preach  to  the  world.  Let  him  kindle  the  church, 
and  the  church  will  illumine  the  community.  The 
lamp  of  the  town  is  the  church.  If  the  lamp  of  the 
church  is  darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness ! 
The  minister  who  gives  himself  to  the  training  of 
a  church  in  Christian  fellowship  is  not  dwarfing  the 
affections  or  curtailing  the  range  of  the  sympathies 
of  his  people.  He  is  creating  the  very  capacities 
and  powers  by  means  of  which  Christ's  large  wish 
for  the  world  can  be  most  speedily  fulfilled.  Affec- 
tions are  most  surely  enriched  and  strengthened 
only  when  cultivated  in  narrow  fields.  It  is  the 
man  who  loves  his  own  wife  as  he  loves  no  other 
woman,  who  comes  to  take  a  chivalric  attitude  to  all 


6o  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

women  everywhere.  By  his  love  for  one  woman 
he  grows  into  a  widening  appreciation  of  the  dignity 
and  beauty  of  womanhood.  It  is  the  father  who 
loves  his  own  children  as  he  loves  no  others,  whose 
affections  go  out  farthest  toward  all  boys  and  girls 
and  who  is  swiftest  to  gather  them  into  the  round 
tower  of  his  heart.  Men  who  are  most  faithful  to 
their  own  homes  are  the  men  to  be  first  counted  on 
for  the  defence  and  maintenance  of  the  interests  of 
all  homes.  It  is  the  man  who  has  come  into  fellow- 
ship with  his  brother  men  in  his  own  Church  who  is 
most  likely  to  come  into  right  relations  with  men 
who  have  no  connection  with  organized  Christian- 
ity. Love  when  once  kindled  travels  far,  but  it 
must  first  be  kindled.  The  church  of  Jesus  is  es- 
tablished for  the  express  purpose  of  kindhng  the 
fire  of  love.  Sermons  are  a  part  of  the  fuel  by  which 
the  fire  is  nourished.  Pastoral  work  also  feeds  and 
safeguards  the  holy  flame.  The  wise  preacher  is  al- 
ways striving  to  bring  the  members  of  his  church 
into  a  richer  fellowship.  The  weakness  of  the 
modern  church  lies  in  its  dwarfed  affections.  The 
shame  of  present-day  Christianity  is  its  stunted 
sympathies.  The  church  is  rich  in  money,  ideas, 
apparatus,  numbers,  but  poor  in  love.  This  is  in 
part  the  fault  of  preachers.     Too  many  of  them 


BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD  6l 

fail  to  cultivate  the  affections.  They  do  not 
understand  how  to  open  the  heart.  They  are  in- 
terested in  problems  and  what  they  call  the  "  King- 
dom," but  they  are  not  sufficiently  interested  in  the 
group  of  people  of  whom  they  are  the  appointed 
religious  teachers.  They  neglect  the  work  of  inter- 
lacing lives,  of  binding  men  into  bundles,  of  twining 
purposes  and  sympathies  together  for  the  advance- 
ment of  Christ's  glory.  There  are  congregations 
which  have  scant  sympathy  with  the  outside  world, 
because  their  members  have  meagre  sympathy 
with  one  another.  If  sympathy  is  cultivated  inside 
the  church,  it  spills  over  into  the  outside  world. 
There  are  churches  which  have  no  interest  in  the 
struggles  and  hopes  of  wage-earners,  largely  because 
there  is  no  interest  among  the  members  of  those 
churches  in  one  another.  Christian  love  is  expressed 
in  the  hymn-book,  but  does  not  exist  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  who  sing  the  hymns;  and  not  lo\dng  the 
man  by  his  side,  it  is  impossible  for  the  loveless 
church  member  to  love  the  man  who  is  far  away. 
When  love  is  kindled  in  the  hearts  of  church 
members  for  one  another,  it  is  a  fire  which  burns 
its  way  to  the  end  of  the  world.  Not  a  little  of  the 
indifference  of  many  Christians  to  the  work  of 
foreign  missions  is  due  to  their  atrophied  social 


62  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

sympathies.  Their  social  nature  has  become  en- 
feebled, and  by  neglecting  their  obligations  to  their 
fellow-townsmen,  they  find  it  impossible  to  respond 
to  the  claims  of  unknown  men  on  the  other  side  of  the 
globe.  Their  lack  of  the  spirit  of  brotherly  affection 
incapacitates  them  also  for  the  worship  of  God. 
Their  worship  is  mechanical  and  unsatisfying. 
The  secret  of  this  was  told  long  ago  by  a  man  who 
laid  it  down  as  axiomatic,  that  if  a  man  does  not 
love  his  brother  whom  he  has  seen  he  cannot  love 
God  whom  he  has  not  seen.  It  is  the  very  quintes- 
sence of  the  Christian  teaching  that  we  can  know 
God  only  through  man,  that  we  come  to  God  only 
through  man,  and  that  we  worship  God  best  by 
loving  men.  Many  a  preacher  has  tried  to  put 
warmth  into  the  worship  of  his  church,  and  all 
in  vain,  because  he  did  not  know  that  the  source  of 
warmth  is  human  fellowship,  and  that  the  place  to 
begin  working  for  an  enrichment  of  the  devotional 
spirit  is  not  among  his  books,  elaborating  arguments 
going  to  prove  that  men  ought  to  delight  in  the 
worship  of  God,  but  in  the  social  meeting  where 
church  members  come  to  know  one  another. 
Christians  who  are  interested  in  one  another  in- 
variably become  more  interested  in  God.  Loving 
pien  is  the  only  way  to  grow  in  the  grace  of  loving 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  6^, 

God.  Unless  a  church  is  socialized,  how  can  it  be 
expected  to  feel  an  interest  in  social  movements? 
A  set  of  people  who  are  not  interested  in  one  an- 
other will  not  be  likely  in  the  house  of  prayer 
to  worship  God  with  glad  and  exultant  hearts,  or  in 
the  field  of  Christian  service  to  work  effectively  for 
the  advancement  of  the  kingdom.  The  preacher's 
first  work  is  the  building  of  a  brotherhood.  Out 
of  this,  when  once  created,  all  sorts  of  reviving 
streams  will  flow. 

These  are  good  times  for  preachers  to  ponder  the 
meaning  of  the  new  commandment  and  to  train 
their  people  in  the  practice  of  it.  Men  are  thinking 
as  never  before  of  solidarity,  and  organic  Hfe  and 
corporate  responsibilities.  In  the  commercial  world 
there  is  an  amazing  revelation  of  the  power  of  co- 
operation, in  the  industrial  world  a  growing  appre- 
hension of  the  possibihties  of  collectivism,  in  the 
new  psychology  a  deepened  insight  into  the  relation 
of  personality  to  society.  There  is  a  world-wide 
movement  called  Socialism.  In  all  the  king- 
doms of  Hfe  there  is  a  new  vision  of  the  meaning 
of  social  relationships  and  the  miracle-working 
power  of  combinations.  In  the  whole  trend  of  the 
world's  thought,  the  Spirit  of  God  is  saying  some- 
thing to  the  churches,  and  the  preacher  who  has 


64  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

ears  to  hear  will  receive  a  revelation.  We  are  liv- 
ing in  a  social  age  and  the  question  at  the  front  is 
the  social  question.  Man's  social  nature  is  unprec- 
edentedly  alive  and  is  clamoring  for  a  satisfaction 
which  cannot  be  denied  it.  Men  are  massing  them- 
selves in  cities,  not  chiefly  because  they  are  most 
needed  there,  or  because  they  can  secure  work  there, 
but  because  they  find  in  city  life  gratification  for 
their  social  cravings.  Men  hunger  for  companion- 
ship. They  have  discovered  that  it  is  not  good 
for  them  to  live  alone.  Solitude  is  unendurable, 
isolation  is  death.  As  soon  as  men  come  together 
they  organize,  gather  themselves  into  groups,  form 
fraternities,  unions,  leagues,  clubs.  Men  live  by 
fellowship.  It  is  only  when  hearts  and  hands 
come  together  that  existence  passes  into  life.  The 
multiplication  of  societies,  therefore,  goes  on  in- 
creasingly. This  is  a  fact  of  which  every  alert 
preacher  is  bound  to  take  notice.  Many  a  preacher 
has  already  observed  it  to  his  consternation.  He 
has  found  the  unions  and  lodges,  granges  and  clubs, 
swallowing  up  the  men  of  the  community,  leaving 
for  the  church  only  women  and  children.  In 
bitterness  of  spirit  he  has  cried  out  against  these 
secular  organizations,  denouncing  them  as  enemies 
of  the  church  of  God.    But  all  such  denunciation  is 


BUILDING   THE    BROTHERHOOD  65 

futile.  One  cannot  change  the  movement  of  the 
tides.  Man  is  a  social  animal.  God  made  him 
such.  Men  are  made  for  fellowship,  and  if  they  do 
not  find  it  in  the  church  of  God,  they  will  seek  it 
where  it  may  be  found.  The  wise  preacher  will 
waste  no  time  in  hurling  thunderbolts  at  rival  or- 
ganizations, but  will  set  to  work  with  both  hands 
to  strengthen  the  church  where  the  church  to-day 
is  weakest.  His  ambition  will  be  to  make  his  church 
the  warmest  and  most  effective  brotherhood  in  all 
the  town.  No  stranger  member  shall  remain  un- 
greeted.  No  unfortunate  member  shall  go  un- 
befriended.  No  invalid  shall  be  unvisited.  No 
needy  person  shall  be  unassisted.  No  bewildered 
soul  shall  go  unadvised.  No  home  of  mourning 
shall  be  neglected.  No  act  of  needed  mercy  shall 
be  omitted.  The  church  shall  be  a  home.  Men 
cannot  live  by  sermons  alone,  but  by  every  word 
which  proceeds  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  One  of 
God's  choice  words  is  fellowship,  and  unless  a  church 
offers  fellowship  it  is  doomed.  Worship  without 
fellowship  is  contrary  to  nature.  The  worship  in 
the  New  Testament  is  carried  on  by  brothers.  Men 
cannot  love  a  church  if  all  it  offers  is  the  privilege 
of  listening  to  sermons  and  paying  pew  rent.  It  is 
the  comradeship  of  college  Hfe  which  makes  men 


66  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

love  their  college.  Their  devotion  to  their  Alma 
Mater  springs  out  of  the  friendships  formed  during 
their  student  days.  The  abstract  truths  taught 
by  learned  professors  will  not  account  for  that 
undying  affection  which  many  a  man  feels  for  his 
college.  His  heart  is  warm  because  it  is  bound  up 
with  other  hearts.  A  man's  love  for  his  church 
depends  in  large  measure  upon  the  relationship 
established  between  himself  and  his  fellow-members. 
The  friendships  formed  in  church  life  and  work 
are  among  the  most  sacred  and  enduring  into  which 
the  soul  of  man  can  come.  Unless  a  man  enters 
into  the  social  life  of  the  church,  he  is  practically 
not  a  member  of  it  at  all.  Listening  to  a  preacher 
speak  on  religious  topics  every  Sunday  does  not 
make  one  a  church  member,  even  though  his  name 
is  written  on  the  church  roll.  Fellowship  is  of  the 
essence  of  church  membership,  and  to  cultivate  and 
enrich  this  fellowship  is  the  primary  task  of  the 
Christian  preacher. 

A  sharp  distinction  ought  to  be  made  between  a 
church  and  an  audience.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
we  have  come  to  rank  churches  by  the  size  of  their 
nominal  membership,  and  to  judge  preachers  by 
the  number  of  persons  who  listen  to  their  sermons. 
A  superficial  man  is  consequently  tempted  to  work, 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  6^ 

not  for  a  church,  but  for  an  audience.  An  audience,  ^. 
however,  is  not  worth  working  for.  An  audience  I 
is  a  set  of  unrelated  people  drawn  together  by  a 
short-lived  attraction,  an  agglomeration  of  individ- 
uals finding  themselves  together  for  a  brief  time. 
It  is  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  human  atoms,  scatter- 
ing as  soon  as  a  certain  performance  is  ended.  It 
is  a  pile  of  leaves  to  be  blown  away  by  the  wind, 
a  handful  of  sand  lacking  consistency  and  cohesion, 
a  number  of  human  filings  drawn  into  position  by  a 
pulpit  magnet,  and  which  will  drop  away  as  soon  as 
the  magnet  is  removed.  An  audience  is  a  crowd,  V 
a  church  is  a  family.  An  audience  is  a  gathering, 
a  church  is  a  fellowship.  An  audience  is  a  collection, 
a  church  is  an  organism.  An  audience  is  a  heap  of 
stones,  a  church  is  a  temple.  Preachersare  ordained, 
not  to  attract  an  audience,  but  to  build  a  church. 
Coarse  and  ambitious  and  worldly  men,  if  richly 
gifted,  can  draw  audiences.  Only  a  disciple  of  the 
Lord  can  build  a  church.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a 
supposedly  mighty  church  to  wilt  like  Jonah's  gourd, 
as  soon  as  the  man  in  the  pulpit  vanishes.  The  struc- 
ture was  of  hay  and  wood  and  stubble,  and  it  dis- 
appeared in  the  fire  of  God's  swift  judgment  day. 
It  is  because  so  many  churches  are  audiences, 
rather    than     brotherhoods,    that    thousands    of 


6S  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

Christians  on  changing  their  place  of  residence 
drop  out  of  church  connections  altogether.  Their 
old  church  membership  meant  nothing  to  them, 
and  therefore  membership  in  another  church  has  no 
attraction  for  them.  When  they  joined  the  church, 
it  was  the  minister  who  welcomed  them.  The 
church  took  no  note  of  their  advent.  When  death 
visited  their  home,  it  was  the  pastor  who  offered 
condolence.  The  church  was  not  grieved  by  the 
bereavement.  When  a  financial  crisis  swept  the 
little  fortune  away,  leaving  the  world  dark,  it  was 
the  preacher  who  spoke  a  sympathetic  word,  but  the 
church  cared  for  none  of  these  things.  When  the 
hour  for  departure  arrived,  it  was  the  head  official 
of  the  church  who  said,  ''Good-by,"  but  the 
brotherhood  had  nothing  whatever  to  say.  This  is 
the  tragedy  which  goes  on  in  hundreds  of  parishes, 
and  so  long  as  it  continues  many  preachers  must 
preach  to  dwindling  congregations  and  the  church 
must  limp  like  a  giant,  not  with  a  wounded  heel,  but 
with  a  broken  leg.  A  man  who  has  been  starved  in 
one  church  is  not  likely  to  connect  himself  with 
another.  When  he  makes  for  himself  a  new  home, 
he  will  identify  himself  with  a  society  which  offers 
him  comradeship  and  furnishes  an  atmosphere  in 
which  his  soul  can  live. 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  69 

The  problem  of  developing  new  converts  is  even- 
more  perplexing  than  that  of  retaining  the  allegiance 
of  old  ones.  It  is  easier  to  convert  men  than  it  is 
to  educate  them.  The  converts  are  many,  but  the 
developed  workers  are  few.  In  a  season  of  spiritual 
awakening  ten  seem  to  be  healed,  but  when  the 
preacher  goes  in  search  of  them,  he  cries  in  bewilder- 
ment, "Where  are  the  nine?"  Only  a  small  pro- 
portion of  those  who  start  the  Christian  Kfe  ever 
reach  spiritual  maturity.  One  of  the  reasons  is  a 
deadly  environment.  The  atmosphere  is  so  cold 
that  the  young  convert  is  fatally  chilled.  He  gasps 
for  a  few  months  and  then  expires.  There  are  many 
congregations  in  which  church  obHgations  are  so 
little  known  and  practised  that  it  is  only  the  ex- 
ceptional convert  who  survives  the  early  stages  of 
Christian  discipleship.  The  atmosphere  of  the 
church  has  in  it  no  life-giving  qualities.  The  church 
is  not  a  brotherhood,  and  when  a  new  recruit  starts 
to  follow  Jesus,  he  is  not  cheered  by  brotherly 
voices  or  guided  by  fraternal  hands.  In  the  dark- 
ness of  the  first  days,  there  is  no  one  to  do  what 
Ananias  did  for  Saul  when  he  laid  his  warm  hand  on 
the  trembhng  convert's  head,  saying,  "Brother 
Saul,  receive  thy  sight."  It  is  often  the  touch  of  a 
brother's  hand  which  opens  the  heavens  to  the 


If^^ 


70  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

beginning  Christian.  In  successful  church  work 
the  voice  of  the  preacher  must  be  supplemented 
by  the  welcoming  hand  of  a  brother.  The  preacher 
is  never  sufficient  when  he  stands  alone.  Peter  was 
mighty  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  because  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  —  the  entire  brotherhood  —  stood 
with  him.  The  Bible  is  not  enough  to  make  men 
strong.  Human  hands  and  hearts  are  needed. 
The  revelation  which  came  through  holy  men  of 
old  must  be  completed  by  a  revelation  coming 
through  men  now  living.  The  human  hand  has  a 
power  which  even  the  Scriptures  do  not  possess. 
There  is  something  in  a  human  heart  which  com- 
pletes the  power  of  Almighty  God  in  the  work  of 
saving  men.  Eloquence  is  a  force,  but  affection  is 
a  force  still  more  potent.  Social  intercourse  is  a 
means  of  grace  as  truly  as  are  prayer  and  the  sacra- 
ments, and  is  of  equal  rank  with  these.  Warmth 
is  as  essential  as  light  in  the  growing  of  souls.  The 
preacher  may  furnish  light,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
heat  must  be  supplied  by  the  brotherhood.  The 
finest  and  deepest  powers  of  the  soul  are  called  into 
play  only  by  social  contact.  Every  point  of  contact 
—  or,  as  Paul  puts  it,  "every  joint"  —  is  a  channel 
of  divine  grace.  It  is  at  the  points  where  Christian 
lives  touch  that  there  springs  up  the  Hfe  by  which 


BUILDING   THE    BROTHERHOOD  71 

the  church  is  nourished  and  made  capable  for  her 
work.  God's  grace  flows  through  social  bonds.  We 
are  held  in  our  place  by  personal  attachments.  We 
save  one  another.  This  is  why  Paul  is  always  ex- 
horting his  converts  to  subject  themselves  one  to 
another.  He  is  not  satisfied  at  times  with  his 
figure  of  a  temple.  He  supplements  it  with  his 
figure  of  the  body.  Church  members  are  even 
closer  together  than  the  stones  of  a  temple 
wall.  They  are  knit  together  like  the  parts  of  an 
organism.  Each  organ  exists  for  the  life  and  pros- 
perity of  the  whole.  Each  is  needed  by  all.  The 
whole  is  dependent  on  each.  The  preacher  is  im- 
potent without  the  assistance  of  the  brotherhood. 
His  words  will  never  catch  fire  unless  the  brother- 
hood creates  the  atmosphere  in  which  gospel  truths 
blaze.  He  cannot,  unassisted,  hold  his  converts. 
It  is  impossible  for  him,  single-handed,  to  keep  his 
spiritual  children  from  falling.  His  success  in  con- 
serving the  fruits  of  his  labors  will  be  measured  by 
his  abiHty  to  build  and  maintain  a  compact  and 
.conquering  brotherhood.  (jMany  a  sermon  must  be 
preached  on  the  duties  which  Christians  owe  to  one 
another./  Many  an  hour  must  be  devoted  to  the 
difficult  and  delicate  work  of  linking  the  lives  of  the 
new  converts  into  the  lives  of  those  who  have 


72  BUILDING   THE    BROTHERHOOD 

travelled  farther  along  the   perilous  and  glorious 
way. 

Building  the  brotherhood,  this  is  our  work,  and 
work  more  taxing  and  baffling  God  has  never  given 
to  mortals.  It  brought  the  Son  of  God  to  the  cross, 
and  every  man  who  attempts  the  same  work  must 
drink  of  a  like  cup  and  be  baptized  with  a  similar 
baptism.  Not  until  a  minister  strives  to  build  a 
brotherhood  does  he  realize  how  unsocial  human 
nature  is,  how  narrow  and  how  cold.  Not  till 
then  does  he  discover  what  havoc  sin  has  wrought, 
and  what  low  and  crude  conceptions  of  the  obliga- 
tions of  Christian  discipleship  lodge  in  many  a 
Christian  heart.  It  is  only  then  that  human  nature 
begins  to  reveal  its  deeper  uglinesses  and  that 
many  interior  littlenesses  and  meannesses  come 
trooping  into  the  light.  Even  the  Lord  himself 
could  not  get  twelve  men  to  sit  together  at  a  table 
on  the  last  night  of  his  life  on  earth  without  an 
exhibition  of  petty  irritation  and  wounded  vanity 
which  cast  a  deeper  shadow  over  his  already  break- 
ing heart.  It  is  comparatively  easy  for  most 
Christians  to  listen  to  sermons.  This  lays  slight 
strain  on  Christian  character.  It  is  easy  for  many 
Christians  to  give  money.  Some  of  them  will  give 
it  generously.    It  is  not  difficult  to  persuade  certain 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  73 

of  the  elect  to  engage  in  Christian  work.    Work 
among  the  submerged  has  in  many  places  become 
even  fashionable.     But  for  church  members  to  be 
brotherly  with  one  another,  this  is  indeed  difficult, 
in  many  quarters  apparently  impossible.      Men 
teach  boys  in  mission  schools  who  cannot  be  in- 
duced to  show  an  interest  in  their  younger  brethren 
in  their  own  church.     Women  work  for  women  in  a 
settlement  or  mission  who  will  not  recognize  women 
of  a  different  social  station  in  their  own  church 
family.     Men  make  contributions  for  carrying  the 
gospel  into  foreign  lands  who  act  like  heathen  in 
their  home  church.     To  the  amazement  of  the  young 
preacher,  social  estrangements  flourish  inside  the 
company  of  the  sanctified.     Class  antagonisms  do 
not  soften  under  the  most  fervent  preaching  of  the 
gospel.     Racial  lines  remain  straight  and  fixed,  and 
all  the  rivalries  and  enmities,  vanities  and  prejudices, 
of  which  the  world  is  full,  grow  rank  inside  the  gar- 
den of  the  Lord.     Possibly  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
certain   preachers   devote   so   much   attention   to 
sinners  outside  their  congregations.     A  man  finds 
rehef  in  striking  at  a  distant  octopus  who  has  been 
discomfited    by  some    unregenerate  pigmy  within 
his  reach.     The  sinners  inside  his  parish  are  so 
hopeless  that  in  sheer  desperation   the  defeated 


74  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

preacher  gives  his  attention  to  the  great  outside 
world,  whose  tragedies  it  is  easy  to  portray,  whose 
colossal  culprits  it  is  harmless  to  castigate,  and 
concerning  whose  reconstruction  it  is  refreshing  to 
give  advice. 

But  the  servant  of  the  Master  must  not  follow 
the  things  which  are  easy.  Let  him  take  hold  of  the 
things  which  are  hard.  Let  him  lay  both  hands  on 
his  church.  He  may  find  that  his  church  is  after 
all  only  an  audience,  and  that  its  members  need 
to  be  fused  into  a  body  which  the  Lord  can  use. 
It  may  be  that  the  older  people  are  not  interested 
in  the  younger  people  and  that  they  eye  each  other 
across  a  chasm  which  widens  and  deepens  with  the 
years.  Possibly  employers  have  steadfastly  held 
aloof  from  wage-earners,  and  the  rich  men  have 
never  shown  friendliness  for  the  men  who  are  poor. 
It  may  be  that  the  new  members  have  been  allowed 
to  continue  strangers,  and  that  older  members  have 
sat  for  years  within  six  feet  of  each  other  without 
even  so  much  as  a  look  of  mutual  recognition. 
Possibly  there  are  men  who  quarrelled  ten  years  ago, 
and  who  have  doggedly  resisted  every  suggestion  of 
reconciliation.  They  do  not  speak  either  in  the 
church  or  on  the  street,  and  this  ill-will  festering  in 
their  hearts  poisons  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole 


BUILDING   THE    BROTHERHOOD  75 

church.  Here  is  a  problem  more  urgent  for  the 
minister  than  any  of  the  disputes  between  labor 
and  capital.  It  may  be  that  members  of  the  church 
are  estranged  from  one  another  by  differences  in 
doctrinal  opinion.  An  orthodox  brother  thinks 
that  his  orthodoxy  gives  him  a  right  to  malign  those 
who  differ  from  him,  and  in  defending  the  truth 
he  tramples  the  new  commandment  under  his  feet. 
To  train  Christian  men  to  love  one  another  who 
differ  from  one  another  theologically,  is  a  task 
more  formidable  than  converting  the  toughest 
of  the  publicans  and  the  trickiest  of  the  sinners. 
But  Jesus  is  explicit  on  this  point.  Worship  must 
wait  on  reconciliation.  Get  right  with  your  brother, 
says  the  Lord  of  love,  before  you  set  up  your  altar. 
It  may  be  that  some  Pharaoh  has  grown  up  in  the 
midst  of  the  congregation  who  lords  it  over  both  the 
minister  and  the  saints.  He  has  made  trouble  for 
years,  and,  unless  suppressed,  he  will  make  trouble 
for  years  to  come.  Such  a  man  must  be  dealt  with. 
His  sin  is  as  destructive  to  the  life  of  the  church  as 
habitual  drunkenness  or  flagrant  lust.  Unbrotherly 
conduct  in  a  church  member  always  makes  him  a  fit 
subject  for  church  discipline,  and  the  minister  is  not 
doing  his  duty  who  allows  the  church  to  be  torn  and 
harassed  by  an  ungodly  despot  who  has  set  up  his 


76  BUILDING  THE   BROTHERHOOD 

throne  in  the  parish.  Nothing  worth  while  could 
go  on  in  the  upper  chamber  until  Judas  was  got  rid 
of,  and  so  in  many  a  church  the  communion  should 
not  be  celebrated  again  until  the  confirmed  mischief- 
maker  has  been  cast  out.  Patience  and  mercy  are 
always  in  order,  but  there  are  certain  transgressors 
who  are  apparently  incorrigible,  and  their  way 
ought  to  be  made  hard. 

These  are  the  arduous  and  cardinal  things  which 
a  minister  has  to  do.  It  is  easy  to  denounce  sins  in 
general  and  still  easier  to  unfold  beautiful  ideas,  but 
to  induce  different  classes  of  church  members  to 
live  and  work  together  as  Christians  —  this  is  the 
most  stupendous  and  heart-breaking  labor  to  which 
a  minister  of  the  Gospel  can  set  himself.  The 
church  of  Christ  if  not  a  brotherhood  is  a  failure. 
To  make  it  a  brotherhood,  this  is  the  hope  and 
despair  of  the  minister,  this  is  his  cross  and  his 
crown.  To  build  all  types  of  humanity  into  this 
brotherhood  is  an  aim  never  to  be  lost  sight  of. 
Churches  organized  along  social  lines  are  breeders 
of  mischief.  A  church  made  up  of  people  of  but 
one  social  grade  is  a  church  doomed  to  a  blasted 
spiritual  experience.  A  church  of  the  rich  is  not 
a  church  after  the  ideal  of  Jesus,  neither  is  a  church 
of  the  poor.     It  is  only  when  the  rich  and  the  poor 


BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD  77 

sit  down  together  that  they  come  to  believe  that  \ 
the  Lord  is  the  maker  of  them  all.  A  church 
exists  for  the  express  purpose  of  knitting  together 
the  lives  of  those  whom  the  forces  of  the  world 
have  driven  asunder.  The  rich  and  the  poor  are 
to  come  together  at  the  feet  of  him  who,  once  rich, 
for  man's  sake  became  poor.  The  laborer  and  the 
capitaUst  are  to  join  hands  in  front  of  the  cross. 
The  cultivated  man  and  the  man  without  schooling 
are  to  learn  each  other's  worth  in  Christian  service. 
The  foreigners  are  to  be  no  more  aliens,  but  full 
members  of  the  family  of  God.  Brotherhood  is 
what  the  world  is  clamoring  for,  and  it  is  an  example 
of  brotherhood  which  the  Christian  church  must 
give.  The  church  is  the  laboratory  in  which  ex- 
periments in  brotherhness  are  to  be  conducted  first 
and  farthest.  The  church  is  the  factory  in  which 
men  are  to  be  converted  into  brothers.  A  man 
with  a  brotherly  heart  is  a  form  of  power  which  the 
industrial  and  commercial  worlds  are  waiting  for. 
That  church  is  doing  humanity  the  largest  service 
which  develops  within  itself  the  highest  potencies 
of  love. 

Let  preachers,  then,  create  in  their  churches  by 
their  preaching  the  spirit  of  love,  and  the  churches 
will  pass  it  on.    The  world  will  never  listen  to  ser- 


78  BUILDING   THE   BROTHERHOOD 

mons  on  sympathy  and  good- will  until  these  exist  in 
heavenly  abundance  inside  the  church.  What  is 
the  use  of  preachers  trying  to  give  the  world  a  theory 
of  something  which  the  church  itself  does  not  prac- 
tise ?  No  man  can  preach  love  effectively  over  the 
body  of  a  loveless  church.  Our  immediate  task 
is  not  to  Christianize  the  world,  but  to  Christianize 
the  church.  The  church  progressively  Christianized 
will  gradually  Christianize  society.  God  cuts  our 
piece  of  work  small  in  order  that  we  may  do  it  well. 
The  task,  though  limited,  is  dynamic  and  far- 
reaching.  The  church,  if  leaven,  will  leaven  the 
whole  lump.  Our  first  business  is  not  with  the 
lump,  but  with  the  leaven.  He  is  the  greatest 
preacher  who  so  frames  and  utters  the  thoughts 
of  God  as  to  bind  together  the  largest  number  of 
Christian  hearts  in  closest  fellowship  for  Christlike 
service. 


LECTURE  III 
BUILDING  THE   INDIVIDUAL 


^^^ 


BUILDING  THE  INDIVIDUAL 

Having  viewed  the  style  and  proportions  of  the 
edifice,  let  us  consider  the  living  stones  which  are  to  v 
go  into  i^^After  looking  at  the  whole,  it  is  time  to 
study  ^^H||:s.  The  fault  of  the  old  individualism 
was  tTiaf  it  began  with  the  individual  and  ended  N 
with  him.  It  worked  upon  the  single  man,  with  no 
clear  social  end  in  view.  Christian  individuahsm 
begins  with  a  social  vision.  It  sees  that  the  individ- 
ual exists  in  and  for  society,  and  that  personaHty 
feeds  and  completes  itself  only  in  the  group.  The 
living  stones  have  no  abiding  Kfe,  unless  built  into 
the  walls  of  a  growing  temple.  The  preacher  must 
be  an  individuahst,  but  he  must  see  in  his  mind's 
eye  the  completed  building,  before  he  begins  to 
shape  the  stones  out  of  which  the  edifice  is  to  be 
constructed. 

Because  of  its  lack  of  the  social  vision,  individual- 
ism is  to-day  discredited,  and  the  danger  is  that  in 
casting  aside  an  individualism  which  is  defective, 
we  may  throw  away  the  individualism  which  is 
Christian.    Aggregated  Hfe  has  become  so  important 

G  8l 


82  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

in  our  eyes,  that  the  temptation  is  to  lose  interest  in 
the  human  unit.  The  social  vision  has  for  a  season 
shaken  our  faith  in  the  individualistic  method. 
A  thousand  voices  remind  us  that  the  world  is  the 
subject  of  redemption,  that  society  as  a  whole  must 
be  claimed  for  Christ,  that  the  church  is  not  a  rescue 
ship,  picking  up  isolated  individuals  tossed  on  the 
angry  billows,  but  a  mighty  servant  of  the  Lord 
gathering  up  the  total  interests  and  institutions  of 
the  entire  race  of  men.  Stirred  by  these  imperial 
phrases,  not  a  few  have  grown  distrustful  of  all 
traditional  methods,  and  are  thinking  of  men  ex- 
clusively in  masses.  Communities  and  classes 
and  races  are  alone  large  enough  to  catch  and  hold 
attention.  It  is  not  any  one  rich  man  or  any  one 
poor  man,  but  rather  the  rich  and  the  poor,  upon 
whom  the  gaze  of  the  world  is  fastened.  It  is 
capital  and  labor,  rather  than  any  one  capitalist 
or  any  one  laborer,  which  presents  a  problem  that 
appeals  to  the  modern  mind.  Many  leaders  and 
teachers  have  a  Hvely  concern  for  the  races,  white, 
black,  yellow,  and  brown,  who  care  little  for  the 
individual  representatives  of  those  races.  It  is 
not  uncommon  to  lose  sight  of  men  altogether  and  fix 
the  eyes  on  the  economic  system,  the  industrial, 
and  social  order.     Rescuing  individuals  here  and 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  83 

there  seems  a  puttering  and  paltry  occupation,  and 
to  alter  the  structure  of  society,  the  framework 
of  the  world,  is  counted  the  only  business  worthy 
the  efforts  of  a  full-statured,  far-visioned  man. 

Preaching  in  many  pulpits  has  grown  increasingly 
impersonal.  Sermons  have  become  more  and  more 
discussions  of  social  questions.  To  urge  upon  the 
individuals  in  the  congregation  an  immediate 
surrender  to  Christ  as  Lord,  seems  to  certain 
preachers  somewhat  irrelevant,  and  to  others  quite 
ill-mannered.  It  is  a  problem-loving  age,  as  the 
magazines  and  plays  and  novels  testify,  and  it  is 
hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  pulpit  should 
be  swept  along  into  this  roaring  torrent.  The  sub- 
jects uppermost  in  current  literature  cHmb  into  the 
pidpit,  and  before  the  preacher  is  aware  of  it  he  has 
become  a  professor  of  economics,  a  lecturer  on  soci- 
ology, a  writer  of  pulpit  editorials,  a  social  reformer, 
a  clerical  philanthropist,  an  instructor  in  the  litera- 
ture of  modern  movements,  or  a  practitioner  of  the 
art  of  mental  heahng.  His  favorite  subjects  are 
Trades-unionism,  Socialism,  Immigration,  Child 
Labor,  Juvenile  Courts,  Democracy,  IndustriaHsm, 
Sanitation,  Labor  and  Capital,  Trusts  and  Syndi- 
cates, Factory  Legislation,  Civic  Reform,  Over- 
crowding, Sewerage,  Sweatshops,  Conservation  of 


84  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

National  Resources,  Woman  Suffrage,  Christian 
Science,  and  Old  Age  Pensions.  Men  all  around 
him  are  discussing  these  matters,  and  the  preacher 
feels  that  he  also  must  make  his  contribution. 
The  individual  counts  less  and  less,  the  world 
looms  more  and  more.  The  preacher  is  interested 
in  man,  but  not  in  men,  in  humanity,  but  not  in 
the  particular  persons  into  whose  faces  he  looks 
on  the  Lord's  day. 

The  scientific  doctrine  of  environment  has  also 
been  operative  in  shaping  the  pattern  of  pulpit 
teaching.  One  of  the  most  potent  factors  in 
moulding  a  man's  life  is  undoubtedly  his  surround- 
ings, and  science  has  emphasized  and  popularized 
this  fact.  The  preacher  in  his  parish  finds  many 
evidences  that  environment  is  mighty,  and  this  dis- 
covery when  duly  pondered  is  sure  to  modify  and 
may  revolutionize  his  whole  outlook  on  life.  He 
strives  to  elevate  a  man  in  the  slums,  and  fails. 
He  makes  up  his  mind  that  to  save  a  man  in  a 
swamp  is  impossible.  The  swamp  itself  must  first 
be  drained.  Disease  cannot  be  kept  from  the  home 
when  the  atmosphere  for  a  mile  around  is  charged 
with  poison  germs.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to 
cleanse  the  air.  He  is  tempted  to  forsake  the  in- 
dividual  altogether,    feeling    that    the  first  work 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  85 

must  be  done  upon  the  city  as  a  whole.  He  begins 
to  doubt  the  doctrine  of  personal  responsibility, 
and  to  lay  the  blame  for  vicious  lives  upon  society. 
The  social  order  becomes  to  him  the  transgressor; 
the  economic  system,  the  mother  of  criminals. 
Until  these  have  been  changed,  pass  condemna- 
tion, he  says,  on  no  man.  You  cannot  redeem 
the  individual  until  you  change  the  structure  of  the 
world.  This  is  the  style  of  reasoning  by  which 
men  of  tender  hearts  and  impatient  tempers  are 
sometimes  carried  into  one  of  the  many  camps 
of  Socialism.  Socialism  fascinates  because  it  offers 
to  do  things  on  a  vast  scale,  and  in  the  telling  of  its 
story  uses  only  words  which  are  passionate  and 
vivid.  Why  should  a  man  squander  his  energy 
in  pulling  an  occasional  mortal  out  of  his  misery, 
when,  by  uniting  with  other  men,  he  can  help  to 
throw  the  whole  framework  of  civilization  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye  on  the  junk-heap  ?  It  is  not 
uncommon  for  preachers  whose  social  conscience  is 
sensitive  to  convert  their  sermons  into  chambers  of 
horrors.  Sunday  gives  them  an  opportunity  to 
uncover  the  world's  ulcers  and  running  sores. 
Their  sense  of  the  world's  need  and  the  impetuosity 
of  their  temper  render  them  impatient  with  the  old 
method  of  faithful  dealing  with  the  individual  man. 


86  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

One  man  in  their  sight  counts  for  nothing.  What  is 
he  ?  A  straw  blown  by  the  gale,  a  fly  on  the  rim 
of  one  of  the  wheels  of  the  world's  chariot,  a  grain  of 
sand  on  an  illimitable  shore,  a  bubble  on  the  crest 
of  an  immeasurable  billow,  a  vapor  that  appears  for 
a  little  time  and  then  vanishes  away.  The  religious 
leader  who  is  wise  —  so  these  men  think  —  will 
direct  his  sermons  to  the  community;  his  effort  will 
be  to  reconstruct  the  order  of  the  world. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  this  argument  should  be  so 
plausible  as  to  seduce  many  sympathetic  and  con- 
scientious minds,  for  it  is  certainly  fallacious  and 
when  acted  on  leads  to  an  impoverishment  of  pulpit 
jj  power.  Many  a  man  is  preaching  to  a  dwindling 
;!  congregation  because  his  sermons  have  lost  the 
I  i  personal  note.  He  chills  by  his  vague  generalities, 
or  enrages  by  his  wholesale  denunciations.  A  con- 
gregation is  to  be  pitied  if  it  has  in  the  pulpit  a  cleri- 
cal Hamlet  whose  every  second  sermon  is  a  lamen- 
tation that  the  time  is  out  of  joint,  leaving  his 
people  to  infer  that  he  was  born  to  set  it  right. 
Such  a  man  would  be  saved  from  his  aberrations 
by  looking  steadily  at  the  individuals  immediately 
before  him.  The  preacher  who  allows  his  eye  to 
wander  long  from  the  individual  man  is  destined  to 
lose   power   as   a   preacher.     That   man  preaches 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  87 

most  searchingly,  most  persuasively,  and  most  ef- 
fectively who  knows  best  and  loves  most  the 
individual. 

This  is  not  an  age  in  which  the  preacher  can  afford 
to  lose  out  of  his  work  the  personal  touch.  Many 
forces  are  conspiring  to  blur  the  edges  of  individual- 
ity and  melt  men  down  into  a  common  mass.  The 
immediate  effect  of  the  teaching  of  modern  science 
is  to  create  a  loneliness  in  the  human  heart.  Her 
revelation  of  the  vastness  of  the  universe  beats  man 
down  into  a  feeling  of  insignificance,  and  brings  to 
the  lips  with  a  fresh  poignancy  the  question  of  the 
Hebrew  poet,  ''What  is  man  that  thou  art  mindful 
of  him?"  Men  in  our  day  need  to  be  encouraged 
to  think  of  themselves  as  highly  as  they  ought  to 
think.  They  are  waiting  for  some  prophet  of  the 
Lord  to  say  to  them,  one  by  one,  "Son  of  man, 
stand  upon  thy  feet." 

It  is  an  age  of  migrations,  and  many  hearts  are 
forlorn.  Foreigners  are  coming  to  us  by  the  mill- 
ions, and  our  fellow-countrymen  shift  their  residence 
with  a  frequency  never  known  before  in  any 
land.  Electricity  and  steam  have  converted  us  into 
a  race  of  nomads.  In  this  ceaseless  movement  of 
population  there  are  gigantic  perils.  Breaking 
up  the  home  often  breaks  up  the  foundations  of 


88  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

morality.  When  men  move  in  masses,  the  indi-  / 
vidual  drops  out  of  sight.  Vast  populations  are 
pouring  into  the  city  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  vor- 
tex of  its  boiling  life.  The  man  who  stands  out 
distinct  in  a  village  becomes  invisible  in  a  city.  In 
the  village  his  name  is  honored.  He  can  speak  to 
the  richest  banker,  the  leading  merchant,  even  to  the 
postmaster.  But  in  the  city  he  is  quite  ignored. 
His  very  existence  is  unknown.  If  he  were  in  the 
penitentiary  he  would  wear  a  number,  but  the  city 
does  not  take  the  trouble  even  to  give  him  a 
numbered  tag.  He  could  not  escape  from  a  prison 
without  exciting  commotion.  He  can  drop  out  of 
city  Uf  e  without  an  eye  winking.  Cities  are  colossal 
destroyers  of  individuality.  They  are  steam  rollers, 
crushing  men  down  into  a  common  smoothness  and 
flatness.     Here  is  the  preacher's  opportunity. 

Industrial  forces  are  working  ceaselessly  to  roby 
the  individual  of  distinction.  Machinery  crowds 
men  into  factories  and  mills,  where  they  are  lumped 
together  as  so  many  ''hands,"  pieces  of  an  intricate 
mechanism  turning  out  a  commercial  product. 
They  are  not  quite  animals,  and  not  altogether  full- 
grown  men.     Here  is  the  preacher's   opportunity. 

Commercial  forces  are  working  to  obHterate  the  ^ 
individual.     The  small  proprietor  is  disappearing. 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  89 

Little  business  houses  are  swallowed  up,  and  the 
man  who  once  had  his  name  painted  above  the  door 
reappears  with  diminished  stature  as  a  manager  of  a 
section  in  a  great  department  store,  behind  whose 
counters  thousands  of  human  creatures  carry  on  a 
business  for  men  whom  most  of  them  have  never 
seen,  and  to  whom  they  one  and  all  are  personally 
unknown.  Business  men  are  rolling  themselves 
into  corporations,  syndicates,  and  trusts,  each  man 
disappearing  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  ever 
increasing  bulk  of  the  corporate  body.  It  is  a 
maxim  now  that  corporations  have  no  souls,  so  com- 
pletely has  the  soul  of  the  individual  incorporator 
vanished  from  human  sight.  Here  is  the  preacher's 
opportunity. 

Even  organized  philanthropy  has  a  tendency  to  ^ 
lose  the  individual.  Philanthropists  interest  them- 
selves sometimes  in  sociological  conditions  simply 
as  scientific  phenomena.  They  study  poverty, 
drunkenness,  tuberculosis,  as  interesting  social 
products.  They  pubKsh  volumes  of  statistics, 
giving  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  dimensions  of  the 
vast  ocean  of  want  and  woe,  while  manifesting  no 
interest  in  any  one  broken  family  or  any  individual 
mangled  Hfe.  Many  good  men  are  interested 
nowadays  in  the  ocean,  who  have  no  disposition  to 


90  BUILDING  THE   INDIVIDUAL 

look  at  the  drops  as  they  sHp  silently  into  the  all- 
engulfing  sea.  Here  is  the  preacher's  opportunity. 
It  is  the  lack  of  this  personal  touch  which  is 
multiplying  our  problems  and  deepening  the  black- 
ness of  the  human  tragedy.  One  of  the  alarming 
facts  of  our  world  is  the  widespread  absence  of  the 
^  sense  of  personal  responsibility.  In  the  labor 
world  outrages  are  often  perpetrated  which  it  is 
impossible  to  trace  to  the  door  of  any  ascertainable 
malefactor.  Men  joined  in  a  union  sometimes  do 
things  which  no  one  of  them  would  think  of  doing 
if  standing  alone.  In  the  business  world  dishonor- 
able and  illegal  operations  are  often  carried  on  for 
which  no  one,  apparently,  is  responsible.  Men 
merged  in  corporations  seem  to  become  capable  of 
performing  deeds  to  which  no  one  of  them  if  left  to 
himself  would  ever  stoop.  The  sense  of  personal 
accountabihty  decays  when  the  distinctness  of  the 
individual  fades.  To  keep  the  Hues  of  individuality 
vivid  and  sharp,  this  is  the  work  of  the  preacher. 
'^Where  art  thou?"  and  ^'Where  is  thy  brother?'^ 
these  are  the  first  questions  which  a  religious  teacher 
is  bound  to  ask,  and  he  must  ask  them  with  such  an 
accent  that  every  man  within  reach  shall  know 
that  they  are  addressed  to  him.  Personal  responsi- 
bihty  both  to  God  and  to  men  is  a  theme  for  all 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  9I 

times  and  places.  If  men  lose  sight  of  their  own 
worth,  they  are  sure  to  hve  unworthily.  If  they 
feel  they  are  ciphers,  they  will  not  much  concern 
themselves  about  their  conduct.  The  moral  lapses 
so  common  among  immigrants  in  a  new  country  are 
due  largely  to  the  decay  of  the  sense  of  personal 
importance.  In  the  old  home  they  had  a  place 
which  was  recognized  and  a  social  significance  widely 
acknowledged,  but  in  the  new  land  they  are  only 
insignificant  drops  in  the  human  ocean,  and  what 
does  it  matter  whether  they  cast  back  the  sunlight 
from  the  crest  of  the  billow  or  sink  into  the  black 
ooze  of  the  ocean  bed?  The  demoralization  of 
morals  wrought  by  great  cities  is  due  to  the  crum- 
bHng  of  the  sense  of  individual  accountabihty. 
Thousands  of  men  and  women  in  all  the  world's 
cities  have  lost  their  grip  upon  the  high  things  of 
life,  because  no  one  but  God  sees  them.  There  is 
no  one  on  earth  who  cares  for  their  souls.  Men  are 
lost  to  the  church  as  soon  as  they  are  submerged 
in  the  crowd.  This  is  the  preacher's  opportunity. 
When  other  men  are  thinking  and  talking  about 
classes  and  masses  and  races,  it  is  more  than  ever 
incumbent  on  the  ambassador  of  Christ  to  keep  his 
eye  on  the  individual  man. 

In  fact  the  preacher  is  in  danger  of  losing  himself. 


92  BUILDING   TIIE    INDIVIDUAL 

All  the  brooks  have  swollen  into  rivers,  and  all  the 
rivers  have  widened  into  lakes  and  oceans.  There 
is  a  sea  of  printed  matter  in  which  ministers  are 
easily  engulfed,  a  flood  of  administrative  work  by 
which  they  are  frequently  swamped,  an  ocean  of 
questions  and  problems  beneath  whose  troubled 
waters  their  pulpit  usefulness  oftentimes  goes  down. 
It  is  not  hard  for  a  minister  to  lose  himself  among 
ambitious  speculations  and  Utopian  undertakings. 
Such  words  as  ''society,"  "humanity,"  "civiliza- 
tion," are  enticing  words  to  conjure  with,  and  never 
has  the  temptation  been  greater  than  now  to  deal 
in  spacious  platitudes,  unbounded  generalizations, 
sweeping  denunciations,  and  vaulting  exhortations 
to  nebulous  duties  whose  contours  are  deeply 
buried  in  the  mists.  There  are  preachers  who  seem 
to  be  like  Atlas,  conscious  that  they  are  holding  up 
the  world.  Unlike  Atlas,  however,  their  faces  wear 
an  anxious  and  despondent  look.  It  would  be  better 
for  them,  and  also  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  if  they 
would  roll  the  world  from  their  shoulders  upon  the 
heart  of  God,  and  be  content  to  carry  simply  the  full 
weight  of  the  responsibility  for  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  souls  who  make  up  their 
congregations. 
The  preacher  needs  the  individual  as  truly  as  the 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  93 

individual  needs  the  preacher.  Each  human  heart 
is  a  page  in  the  great  book  of  life  which  the  preacher 
must  learn  to  read.  What  can  a  minister  know  of 
death  until  he  shuts  himself  up  in  a  room  with  a  man 
who  is  dying  ?  How  can  he  know  anxiety  at  its 
highest  until  he  stands  by  the  bedside  of  the  little 
invahd,  and  feels  the  heartbeats  of  a  mother  agoniz- 
ing over  the  failing  breath  of  her  child  ?  What  can 
he  know  of  poverty  until  he  enters  the  home  of  a 
poor  widow  who  is  terrorized  by  the  wolf  at  her 
door  ?  Remorse  will  be  something  real  to  him  after 
he  has  witnessed  the  agony  of  a  conscience-tor- 
mented man.  He  will  preach  better  on  the  peace 
that  passes  understanding  after  he  has  looked  upon 
a  face  in  the  hour  of  its  spiritual  transfiguration. 
It  is  in  the  experience  of  the  individual  soul  that  the  ^ 
preacher  learns  what  this  world  is.  The  pathos  of 
life  comes  out  in  the  sob  of  some  one  human  spirit. 
Human  nature  cannot  be  understood  either  in  books 
or  in  crowds.  It  is  only  when  one  heart  is  pressed 
close  against  another  heart,  that  heart  secrets  are 
communicated.  The  preacher  remains  cold,  and 
his  sermons  are  abstractions,  until  he  folds  his  life 
down  round  the  lives  of  individual  men.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  pastoral  work  is  essential  to  the 
highest  preaching.     Preachers  who  shirk  pastoral 


94  BUILDING  THE   INDIVIDUAL 

duty  are  always  losers.  They  lose  much  themselves, 
and  their  churches  lose  still  more.  If  orators,  they 
may  attract  large  audiences,  but  they  do  not  do  the 
work  which  is  deepest  and  which  lasts  the  longest. 
It  is  because  preachers  do  not  come  close  enough 
to  individuals  that  they  sometimes  form  an  unhu- 

y  man  style  of  speaking.  To  speak  naturally  ought 
to  be  the  ambition  of  every  preacher.  He  cannot 
afford  to  subtract  from  the  force  of  his  message 
by  tones  which  repel  or  by  intonations  which  offend. 
He  ought  to  speak  in  the  pulpit  as  a  gentleman 
speaks  when  addressing  his  friends  on  matters  of 
importance.  If  he  uses  tones  never  heard  in  the 
home,  and  cadences  which  would  bring  a  laugh  if 
used  in  any  circle  of  society,  he  hurts  the  chances  of 
his  truth.  The  Christian  pulpit  has  been  a  hotbed 
for  the  growth  of  all  sorts  of  curious  and  unearthly 
tones.  Twangs  of  various  twists,  singsongs  of 
divers  melodies,  howls  of  different  degrees  of  fury, 
and  roars  of  many  types  of  hideousness  have  tar- 
nished the  fame  of  the  pulpit  and  caused  the  ungodly 
to  blaspheme.    The  cause  of  these  vocal  monstrosi- 

^  ties  and  outrages  is  that  the  preacher  forgets  he  is 
talking  to  individual  men.  He  thinks  he  is  talking 
to  the  world,  and  that  is  why  he  shouts.  He  has 
the  idea  that  he  is  preaching  to  the  town,  and  con- 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  95 

sequently  he  roars.  He  imagines  he  is  addressing 
a  crowd,  and  his  vocal  mannerisms  are  caused  by 
this  foolish  imagination.  He  gets  his  eye  off  the 
individual  and  his  blunder  reports  itseK  at  once  in 
his  elocution.  The  moment  he  comes  out  of  the 
pulpit  he  speaks  naturally.  The  most  incorrigible 
pulpit  howler  or  whiner  speaks  Hke  a  man  as  soon 
as  he  reaches  the  foot  of  the  pulpit  stairs.  He  is  - 
cured  by  remembering  that  he  is  talking  to  indi- 
viduals. Let  him  remember  this  in  the  pulpit,  and 
many  of  his  elocutionary  sins  will  fold  their  tents 
like  the  Arabs.  Preachers  do  not  preach  to  society 
or  humanity  or  civilization.  They  preach  to  men 
like  themselves.  When  they  come  face  to  face 
with  the  individual  heart  their  style  becomes  natu- 
ral, with  every  tone  genuine  and  every  inflection 
true.  This  is  the  cure  also  for  diseases  of  rhetoric. 
There  are  stilts  rhetorical  as  well  as  stilts  elocu- 
tionary. A  preacher  who  has  imagination  and  a 
facile  command  of  words  is  sure  to  go  on  rhetorical 
stilts  unless  he  keeps  his  eye  on  the  individual. 
The  individual  is  the  preacher's  Hfe-preserver. 
He  is  saved  by  him  from  unnaturalness.  The  natu-  ^ 
ral  style  is  the  clear  style.  The  first  duty  of  a 
preacher  is  to  make  himself  easily  understood. 
He  must  keep  in  contact  with  his  hearers  all  along 


g6  BUILDING  THE   INDIVIDUAL 

the  sermonic  way.  To  do  this  he  must  stand  with 
both  feet  on  the  earth.  Most  laymen  cannot  fly. 
If  the  preacher  soars  into  the  clouds,  he  goes  alone. 
The  clouds  are  a  sorry  place  for  a  preacher.  The 
soaring  preachers  are  not  the  preachers  whom 
grown  men  like  to  hsten  to.  Juveniles  of  all  ages 
sit  awestruck,  but  the  judicious  grieve.  The  Mas- 
ter stood  ever  on  the  ground.  His  greatest  ser- 
mons were  earnest  conversations.    He  always  spoke 

■■*•--  directly  to  the  individual.  He  says,  ''Follow  me." 
It  is  fideHty  to  the  individual  which  insures  a 

J  preacher's  perennial  freshness.  Many  preachers 
become  after  a  time  intolerable,  because  of  their 
monotony.  They  lack  variety  both  in  the  character 
of  their  subjects  and  in  the  manner  of  their  treat- 
ment. All  their  sermons  seem  to  be  prepared  for  an 
imaginary  being  whose  age  and  sex  and  spiritual 
development  never  change.  Their  congregation  is 
to  them  simply  a  huge  chunk  of  humanity,  and  to 
this  living  chunk  they  address  their  sermons.  But 
»  a  preacher  who  wishes  to  escape  monotony  must 
mentally  differentiate  his  congregation  into  groups, 
and  then  disintegrate  these  groups  into  individuals. 
Each  group  must  receive  its  meat  in  due  season. 
When  Paul  wrote  to  Titus  in  regard  to  his  work 
among  the  people  in  Crete,  he  gave  him  an  outline 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  97 

of  the  kind  of  teaching  needed  by  the  older  men, 
another  outline  was  suggested  for  the  young  men, 
still  another  for  the  aged  women,  another  for  the 
young  women,  and  a  different  outHne  still  for  the 
servants.  The  temptations  of  age  are  not  the  temp- 
tations of  youth,  nor  are  the  problems  of  men  the 
problems  of  women.  Masters  need  the  emphasis  at 
one  point,  servants  at  another.  Paul  recognizes 
these  distinctions  and  would  have  each  class  in- 
structed according  to  its  capacities  and  needs.  One  ^^ 
cannot  preach  to  everybody  in  general.  There 
must  be  constant  and  keen-eyed  discrimination. 
Truth  must  be  cut  into  pieces  according  to  the 
nature  of  those  for  whom  it  is  intended.  No  one 
group  in  the  congregation  should  be  allowed  to  go 
hungry.  Not  one  soul  should  be  permitted  to  fall 
to  the  ground  without  the  preacher's  notice. 

It  is  the  individual  who  has  much  to  do  with 
keeping  the  preacher  a  Christian  believer.  The 
preacher  who  works  for  the  reconstruction  of  indi- 
vidual men  has  no  difficulty  in  believing  in  the 
reality  and  power  of  sin,  nor  is  he  likely  to  lose  his 
faith  in  Christ  as  Saviour.  It  is  when  one  grapples 
hand  to  hand  with  a  man  in  the  bondage  of  sin, 
that  he  realizes  the  limitations  of  legislation  and  the 
impotency  of  reformatory  panaceas.  He  faces  for  the 


98  BUILDING  THE   INDIVIDUAL 

^  first  time  the  mystery  of  iniquity,  and  is  not  ashamed 
of  the  gospel,  for  he  possesses  demonstrative  evidence 
that  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every 
one  who  believes.  Men  who  nurse  vague  ambi- 
tions to  lift  the  whole  world  frequently  come  to 
have  foggy  notions  of  the  person  of  Christ.  Losing 
one's  grip  on  the  incalculable  value  of  a  single  soul 
seems  to  loosen  one's  grasp  of  the  need  of  a  personal 
Saviour.  With  the  fading  of  the  majesty  of  the 
individual    the   glory   of   the   Divine   Personality 

,  becomes  dim.  When  the  root  trouble  of  the  world 
is  believed  to  be,  not  rebellion  against  God,  but  a 
faulty  economic  machinery,  it  is  not  easy  to  main- 
tain a  passionate  devotion  to  him  who  was  called 
Jesus,  because  he  was  to  save  his  people  from  their 
sins.  There  are  well-intentioned  men  who  have 
much  to  say  about  the  Christian  consciousness, 
Christian  principles,  and  Christian  influences,  who 
have  allowed  the  personal  Christ  to  fall  into  the 
background  of  their  thinking.  When  men  aim  to 
reform  society  in  general  they  are  apt  to  trust  to 
social  forces  and  humanitarian  influences,  but  when 
they  strive  to  redeem  one  man  only,  they  are  com- 
pelled to  cast  themselves  on  the  omnipotent  God  in 
Christ. 
Work  for  the  individual  is  essential  not  only  for 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  99 

the  maintenance  of  faith,  but  for  keeping  bright  the 
flame  of  hope.     It  is  by  finding  one  man  that  the 
preacher  saves  himself  from  despair.     A  crowd  is  al- 
ways disconcerting,  sometimes  appalling.     We  are 
like  Philip  facing  the  five  thousand  whom  he  saw 
no  way  of  feeding.     It  is  only  when  we  find  in  our 
congregation  some  one  person  —  it  may  be  only  a 
lad  —  whose  resources  we  can  place  in  the  hand  of 
Christ,  that  light  falls  on  the  situation  and  the  heart 
dares  to  entertain  high  expectations.     To  work  for 
the  bettering  of  the  world  as  a  whole  is  at  the  end 
of  the  day  depressing.     Changes  are  slow,  steps  of 
progress  are  infinitesimally  small,  the  preacher  is 
sure  to  die  with  the  world  apparently  Httle  better 
than  it  was  in  his  boyhood.     UnbeHevers  throw 
at  him  the  taunting  question,  ''Where  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  promise  of  his  coming?"     But  the 
man  who  brings  the  gospel  to  individual  hearts  has     / 
always  at  hand  a  book  of  evidence  more  convincing 
than  any  written  by  the  wise  men  of  the  schools. 
It  is  the  faces  of  redeemed  men  in  the  pews  that  keep  i  ^ 
the  preacher's  heart  singing  through  the  disillu- 
sionments  and  discomfitures  of  a  lifelong  campaign. 
The  transfiguration  of  a  single    Hfe   proves  that  *' 
Jesus  is  a  Kving  and  a  present  power,  and  makes  it 
easy  to  believe  that  every  knee  will  some  day  bow 


lOO  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

to  him.  The  apostles  faced  with  undaunted  hearts 
angry  and  murderous  Jerusalem  because  they  could 
point  to  one  jubilant  man,  and  say,  "By  faith  in  His 
name  hath  his  name  made  this  man  strong,  whom  ye 
behold  and  know."  The  preaching  of  Jesus 
was  invincible,  so  long  as  one  man  kept  crying, 
"Whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  Preachers  can 
work  with  patience  and  die  in  hope,  if  only  they  can 
see  in  the  faces  of  men  converted  by  their  preaching 
the  light  of  the  glory  of  the  knowledge  of  the  blessed 
God. 

The  individual  is  also  the  nourisher  of  love.  One 
can  love  mankind  in  general,  but  it  is  a  faint  and 
feeble  love,  not  the  love  that  bursts  into  flame  in 
sentences  that  burn  their  way  into  human  hearts. 
It  is  when  one  heart  touches  another  heart,  that  a 
fire  is  kindled  which  makes  the  whole  church  warm. 
There  may  be  a  growing  interest  in  schemes  and 
movements,  with  a  progressive  ossification  of  the 
heart.  Love  is  the  one  thing  essential  for  the  man 
who  would  preach  the  gospel,  and  love  is  fed  and 
cleansed  and  glorified  by  repeated  contacts  with 
individual  hearts  and  fives. 

Let  the  preacher,  then,  seek  and  find  the  individ- 
ual. The  glory  of  the  temple  is  determined  by  the 
character  of  the  material  which  is  worked  into  it. 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  lOI 

The  stones  must  be  hewn,  shaped,  and  polished, 
and  laid  each  one  in  its  place  with  care.     It  is 
impossible  to  build  a  beautiful  church  out  of  un- 
lovely material,  to   construct  a  glorious  brother- 
hood out  of  unbrotherly  Christians.     Everything 
depends    upon    the    character    of  the   individual 
believer.    The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  separate  him  "^  ' 
from  his  fellows  and  shut  him  in  with  God.     Right  | 
relations   must  be  established  between  him  and  \ 
the  Eternal.     The  soul  must  feel  its  solitary  relation 
to  the  Heavenly  Father  in  order  to  realize  to  the 
full  its  obHgations  to  the  community.     It  is  a  high 
sense  of  individual  responsibility  to  the  Almighty, 
which  is  the  basis  of  an  enduring  and  fruitful  altru- 
ism.    Preaching  must  be  clear  at  this  point.    The 
axe  must  be  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree.     A  man 
must  be  set  right  in  his  impulses  and  motives.     He 
must  be  born  again.     It  is  easy  to  talk  entertainingly 
of  the  sins  of  society  and  the  prospects  of  humanity, 
but  the  critical  business  of  the  preacher  is  to  put 
truth  into  the  inward  parts  of  the  individual  man. 

The  man,  having  started  in  the  Christian  Hfe,  I  ^ 
must  be  trained  to  look  upon  himself  as  a  builder.  (^ 
He  is  the  fashioner  of  the  temple  of  his  soul,  and  the 
work  of  building  must  be  carried  onward  through 
all  the  years.     As  Paul  says,  he  is  to  pass  from  glory 


I02  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

>/  to  glory,  each  succeeding  character  being  more 
splendid  than  the  character  which  went  before  it. 
As  Peter  says,  he  is  to  work  diligently,  ''in  faith  sup- 
pl3dng  virtue,  in  virtue  knowledge,  in  knowledge 
temperance,  in  temperance  patience,  in  patience 
godliness,  in  godliness  love  of  the  brethren,  and  in 

^  love  of  the  brethren  love."  Many  church  members 
do  not  grow  in  grace  or  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
because   their   minister   does   not   instruct   them. 

^  ^  The  spiritual  life  has  its  beginning,  successive  stages, 
•  processes,     crises,     temptations,     perils,     diseases, 
)  lapses,  laws  of  growth;  and  in  all  these  matters  the 
'  preacher  ought  to  be  an  expert.    Many  congregations 
wander  about  like  sheep  not  having  a  shepherd, 
even  though  there  is  a  man  in  the  pulpit  preaching 
sermons.     He  is  interested  in  general  truths  and  in 
the  world  as  a  whole,  but  does  not  understand  the 
laws  of  spiritual  development  nor  the  kind  of  in- 
struction by  which  the  needs  of  the  unfolding  soul 

\    are  satisfied. 

Every  follower  of  Jesus  is  to  be  made  a  positive 
force  for  righteousness  in  the  church  and  community. 
To  accomphsh  this,  preaching  must  be  constructive. 
Men  must  be  told  what  they  are  to  do,  rather  than 
what  they  are  not  to  do.  It  is  by  learning  to  do  well 
that  they  will  cease  to  do  evil.     If  they  are  trained 


BXnLDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL 


103 


to  walk  in  the  spirit,  they  will  not  fulfil  the  lusts  of 
the  flesh.     Many  publications  rail  constantly  at  evil- 
doing,  and  not  a  few  ministers  have  caught  this 
denunciatory  spirit.     But  evil  is  most   certainly 
overwhelmed,  not  by  fixing  the  eyes  on  the  things 
that  are  bad,  but  by  turning  the   heart  to  the ' 
things  that  are  good.     If  there  be  any  virtue  or  any 
praise,    these   are   the   things   worth   expounding. 
Let  the  preacher  deny  himself  the  luxury  of  hurling 
thunderbolts,  and  give  himself  to  the  quiet  work  of 
building  men  in  well-doing.     It  is  better  to  work  > 
for  the  growth  of  one  virtuous  person,  as  Milton  ) 
long  ago  pointed  out,  than  to  toil  for  the  restraint  of  { 
ten  vicious  persons.     It  is  wiser  to  train  one  man  to    ! 
take  an  interest  in  things  which  are  worth  while, 
than  to  storm  mangificently  against  practices  and 
fashions  which  one  would  like  to  see  abolished. 
This  is  to  be  remembered  when  you  are  tempted 
to  preach  a  course  of  twenty  sermons  against  present- 
day  evils  or  popular  amusements. 

Christians  are  to  be  encouraged  to  develop  the 
gift  that  is  in  them.  Every  soul  is  unique.  For 
this  reason  the  Hberty  of  every  individual  is  inexpres- 
sibly sacred.  The  rights  of  personaUty  are  never 
to  be  trespassed  upon  by  the  preacher.  He  must 
not  expect  all  Christians  to  think  alike,  feel  alike. 


104  BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL 

work  alike.  He  must  not  demand  that  they  all 
shall  be  converted  alike,  pass  through  similar 
emotional  experiences,  be  equally  confident  of  the 
truthfulness  of  every  phrase  in  the  Christian  creed. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  a  church  member  shall  think 
and  feel  and  work  like  the  preacher  or  like  the  oldest 
and  saintliest  of  the  church  oflStcials.  The  church 
must  be  kept  spacious.  There  must  be  room  enough 
•  in  it  for  all  temperaments  and  constitutions,  all 
grades  of  development,  and  all  stages  of  culture. 
There  must  be  liberty  for  many  schools  of  thought 
and  many  types  of  service.  To  crush  all  Christians 
into  a  common  mould  is  a  sin  against  the  Christ 
who  wills  that  all  men  shall  be  free  in  him.  The 
preacher  who  considers  those  laymen  who  differ 
from  him  as  guilty  of  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  hath  no  forgiveness  either  in  this  world  or  in 
the  world  which  is  to  come,  is  a  man  too  narrow  to 
be  intrusted  with  the  guidance  of  men's  spiritual 
education.  A  preacher  should  rejoice  if  he  preaches 
to  men  and  women  who  think  for  themselves,  and 
who  have  character  sufficient  to  hold  opinions  differ- 
ent from  his  own.  He  should  encourage  every  man 
to  be  himself,  shining  with  his  own  pecuUar  glory. 
He  should  endeavor  to  throw  round  every  member 
of  his  church  the  influences  which  will  call  into 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL 


105 


blossom  the  potential  strengths  and  beauties  which 
flow  native  in  the  blood.  It  is  in  the  variety  of 
moral  graces,  and  in  the  diversity  of  spiritual  attain- 
ments, that  the  church  finds  its  richest  life  and 
becomes  able  to  perform  its  widest  service.  Build- 
ers use  materials  of  many  shapes  and  textures  in  the 
construction  of  a  cathedral. 

Each  member  of  the  church  is  to  be  trained  in  the 
graces  and  obHgations  of  brotherliness.  He  must 
be  set  at  once  in  the  midst  of  the  brotherhood.  You 
cannot  put  a  man  on  a  glass  tripod  and  teach  him 
brotherHness  out  of  a  book.  He  must  learn  brother- 
liness by  being  brotherl}^  He  can  be  brotherly  only 
when  among  brethren.  To  place  each  new  convert 
in  a  circle  of  brothers,  and  to  keep  him  there,  is  the 
work  of  the  master  preacher.  A  brotherhood  can- 
not be  built  of  men  who  are  unbrotherly.  One 
unbrotherly  man  in  the  circle  of  brothers  works 
infinite  confusion  and  mischief.  BrotherHness  is 
not  a  gift,  but  an  attainment.  It  must  be  worked 
for  through  laborious  years.  It  is  not  enough  to 
have  a  brotherly  intention,  but  the  spirit  must  be 
discipHned  and  developed  and  trained.  The  obli- 
gations and  duties  of  brotherliness  must  be  learned 
and  practised.  The  apostle  who  loved  to  think 
of  the  church  as  a  temple  also  loved  to  think  of  each 


I06  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

soul  as  a  temple.  The  human  personality  is  a 
shekinah.  Every  man  is  of  value  beyond  computa- 
tion. To  build  him  foursquare  in  love  is  the  work 
of  the  preacher.  You  are  not  a  builder  unless 
^  you  build.  Unless  you  build  men  you  are  a  theori- 
'  zer,  a  pedant,  a  declaimer.  A  doctor's  business  is 
not  to  know  books,  but  to  cure  people.  Your  su- 
preme business  is  not  to  build  sermons,  but  to  build 
characters.  The  preacher  who  does  not  count  it  a 
glorious  privilege  to  build  into  the  temple  of  God  one 
particular  pillar  by  whose  splendid  proportions  and 
exquisite  finish  the  glory  of  the  entire  temple  shall 
be  enhanced,  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  heart  of 
him  who  says,  "Him  that  overcometh  will  I  make 
a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  my  God,  and  he  shall  go  no 
more  out ;  and  I  will  write  upon  him  the  name  of 
my  God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of  my  God." 

Peculiar  attention  to  each  and  every  particular 
part,  this  is  the  way  of  builders.  A  builder  is  a 
collectivist  in  his  vision  and  an  individuahst  in  his 
method.  Stone-masons  to-day  follow  the  fashion 
of  the  early  Greeks  in  dressing  one  stone  at  a  time. 
No  matter  what  the  size  of  the  building,  each  stone 
receives  definite  and  protracted  attention.  Our 
bricklayers  follow  the  custom  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, and  lay  one  brick  at  a  time.     No  matter 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  10) 

how  many  millions  of  bricks  are  to  be  laid,  each 
brick  is  handled  separately,  for  although  the  world 
is  rich  in  inventions,  no  time-saving  apparatus  has 
thus  far  been  devised  to  put  out  of  use  the  traditional 
practice.  The  carpenter  drives  one  nail  at  a  time. 
He  persists  in  this,  no  matter  how  large  the  contract 
or  how  pressed  he  is  for  time.  The  ingenuity  of 
man  has  not  created  a  device  to  supersede  the 
time-honored  procedure  of  driving  nails  one  nail  at  a 
time.  Surrounded  by  the  miracle-working  machin- 
ery of  a  new  age,  the  builder  clings  doggedly  to  a 
poHcy  which  is  old.  Go  to  the  builder,  young 
preacher,  consider  his  ways,   and  be  wise. 

It  is  the  social  aim  of  the  builder  which  compels 
him  to  be  an  individuahst  in  his  method.  A  col- 
lectivist  in  vision,  he  is  bound  to  be  an  individualist 
in  practice.  A  building  is  an  aggregate  thing,  and 
becomes  possible  only  by  a  careful  shaping  of  its 
constituent  parts.  It  is  the  building  as  a  whole 
which  dictates  to  the  builder  what  he  is  to  do  with 
each  particular  piece.  Every  part  must  be  moulded 
with  regard  to  every  other  part,  for  the  parts  must 
fit  together  in  order  to  form  the  symmetrical  whole. 
The  nobler  the  edifice  the  more  abundant  the  labor 
which  is  expended  upon  the  individual  stones. 
When  a  Parthenon  is  to  be  built,  there  is  not  a  block 


I08  BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL 

of  marble,  however  small,  upon  which  genius  will 
not  do  its  perfect  work. 

The  preacher  is  a  builder,  and  Hke  all  builders 
he  must  see  things  in  the  large,  and  he  must  have  an 
eye  also  for  things  which  are  small.  He  must  gaze 
often  at  the  finished  temple,  the  glowing  ideal  let 
down  from  heaven,  and  he  must  study  the  possibili- 
ties of  each  and  every  Hving  stone  whose  contribu- 
tion of  strength  and  beauty  is  to  augment  the  splen- 
dor of  the  completed  whole.  The  world  is  indeed 
X^  the  subject  of  redemption,  but  the  world  is  to  be  re- 
deemed one  man  at  a  time.  Men  cannot  be  made 
Christians  in  masses.  That  was  the  rock  over 
which  the  Christian  church  first  stumbled.  It  was 
in  the  days  of  Constantine  that  men  first  came  into 
the  church  in  crowds,  and  with  the  coming  of  the 
crowds  began  the  early  stages  of  a  long  eclipse.  The 
cause  of  Christ  has  been  indefinitely  retarded  be- 
cause the  church,  eager  to  make  haste,  received  men 
into  her  fold  by  tribes  and  baptized  them  by  battal- 
ions. It  is  only  when  the  church  is  willing  to  deal 
with  one  man  at  a  time  that  the  thrones  of  the  king- 
dom of  Satan  are  shaken,  and  that  with  the  tread 
of  a  conquerer  she  strides  toward  the  goal.  Her 
vision  must  ever  be  social,  but  her  method  cannot  be 
other  than  individualistic.    It  is  her  work  to  trans- "^ 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  IO9 

form  society;  but  society  is  made  of  individuals,  and 
the  character  of  the  individuals  fixes  the  character  of 
society.  It  is  her  mission  to  elevate  public  opinion; 
but  public  opinion  is  simply  the  opinion  of  indi- 
viduals, and  the  ruling  opinion  of  a  community  is 
determined  by  the  character  of  its  citizens.  En- 
vironment is  a  mighty  factor  in  the  moulding  of  life, 
but  environment  is  after  all  made  up  of  souls. 
Material  surroundings  are  simply  the  creation  of 
souls.  In  order  to  change  the  environment  there 
must  be  a  transformation  of  souls,  and  souls  are 
re-created  one  at  a  time.  The  supreme  work  of  the  ^ 
preacher  is  the  changing  of  souls.  If  he  turns  aside 
to  anything  else,  the  service  which  humanity  most 
needs  is  left  unperformed.  If  the  preacher  is  eager 
to  alter  the  structure  of  the  world,  let  him  devote  ' 
himself  passionately  to  the  work  of  bringing  men 
one  at  a  time  to  God  in  Christ. 

This  was  the  way  of  Peter.  He  began  the  work  of 
social  betterment  by  taking  by  the  hand  one  of  the 
many  lame  men  in  Jerusalem.  The  hand  of  one 
strong  man  clasping  the  hand  of  one  man  who  could 
not  walk  is  the  frontispiece  of  the  huge  volume  of 
church  history.  The  beautiful  deed  at  the  beauti- 
ful gate  teaches  the  lesson  of  Christian  individual- 
ism.    When  Peter  opened  the  door  for  the  incoming 


no  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

of  the  Gentile  world,  he  opened  it  for  one  man  — 
Cornelius.  Paganism  in  the  mass  did  not  present 
itself  as  an  applicant  for  baptism.  Only  individuals 
were  received  to  whom  had  been  granted  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

This  was  Paul's  way.  It  was  not  all  Europe 
which  appealed  to  him  in  his  dreams,  but  one  solitary 
and  pleading  suppliant.  When  he  reached  Philippi, 
it  was  not  to  the  city  that  he  announced  the  good 
tidings,  but  to  a  few  humble  women  who  had 
not  lost  their  faith  in  prayer.  Paul  found  his  way 
into  the  heart  of  a  new  continent  through  the 
heart  of  one  woman  —  Lydia.  His  mission  was  to 
admonish  every  man,  to  teach  every  man,  that  he 
might  present  every  man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus. 
It  was  worth  while  to  pray  and  labor  for  one  poor 
runaway  slave  —  Onesimus.  Breaking  the  bondage 
of  one  miserable  demented  girl  was  a  triumph 
never  to  be  forgotten.  The  particularizing  genius 
of  Paul  reveals  itself  in  all  his  letters.  He  had  an 
extraordinary  eye  for  the  individual.  It  was  the 
names  of  the  men  and  women  whom  he  personally 
knew  which  made  much  of  the  music  of  his  prayers, 
and  it  was  the  memory  of  the  particular  persons 
with  whom  he  had  labored  and  suffered  and 
triumphed  that  braced  his  heart  in  hours  of  loneli- 


BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  III 

ness  and  peril,  and  opened  up  springs  of  gratitude 
and  affection  which  flowed  unceasingly.  The  man 
stands  revealed  in  sentences  such  as  these  :  "  Salute 
Prisca  and  Aquila  my  fellow-workers  in  Christ 
Jesus;"  "Salute  Epaenetus  my  beloved;"  "Salute 
Mary  who  bestowed  much  labor  on  you;"  "Sa- 
lute Andronicus  and  Junias,  my  kinsmen  and  my 
fellow-prisoners." 

This  was  the  way  of  the  Lord  himself.  He 
startled  men  by  the  piercing  and  particularizing 
glances  of  his  eyes.  "When  sawest  thou  me?" 
was  a  cry  which  burst  from  the  lips  of  many.  A 
woman  supposed  that  she  could  hide  herself  in  a 
crowd.  A  widow  in  the  temple  casting  in  her  two 
mites  did  not  dream  that  she  was  observed  in  the 
throng.  He  singled  out  a  poor  invalid  at  the  pool 
of  Bethesda  whom  no  one  had  seen  for  nearly  forty 
years.  His  heart  was  set  on  winning  the  classes,  and 
so  he  paid  assiduous  attention  to  one  man  —  Nico- 
demus.  His  soul  yearned  for  the  masses,  and  hence 
he  gave  himself  to  one  degraded  woman  at  the  well. 
He  longed  to  reach  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth, 
and  made  the  start  by  changing  the  heart  of  one 
man.  It  was  the  social  vision  that  increased  his 
zeal  in  working  for  the  individual.  It  was  because 
Jerusalem  was  on  his  heart  that  he  was  glad  to 


112  BUILDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

brighten  the  life  of  one  of  her  blind  beggars.  It 
was  because  he  carried  the  world  in  his  eye  that  he 
Y  could  see  so  clearly  the  strategic  importance  of  the  in- 
dividual soul.  The  social  order  was  iniquitous,  and 
men  begged  him  to  strike  it.  He  struck  it  by  chang- 
ing the  spirit  of  a  few  peasants.  The  poHtical  order 
was  corrupt,  and  men  importuned  him  to  overthrow 
it.  He  undermined  it  by  raising  the  ideals  of  a  few 
citizens.  The  economic  system  worked  injustice 
and  oppression,  and  men  hated  him  because  he  did 
not  overturn  it  with  the  point  of  his  sword.  He 
signed  its  death  warrant  by  writing  his  name  on  the 
hearts  of  a  few  disciples.  Outside  of  Palestine  the 
nations  lay  moaning  in  the  darkness.  He  saw  them, 
and  therefore  steadfastly  devoted  himself  to  the 
building  of  twelve  men.  Of  course  the  world  called 
him  narrow,  foolish,  crazy,  devil-possessed;  but  he 
pursued  his  method  to  the  end.  His  life's  work 
seemed  a  failure.  When  he  hung  dying  on  the 
cross,  Judea  was  as  sordid,  Samaria  as  lethargic, 
GaHlee  as  worldly  minded  as  when  with  radiant  face 
he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the  synagogue  at 
Nazareth.  The  Roman  Empire  was  as  cruel  and  the 
nations  were  as  far  from  God  when  he  cried  upon  the 
cross,  ^'It  is  finished  !"  as  when  at  his  baptism  he 
saw  the  heavens  opened.     But  he  did  not  die  baffled 


BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL  II3 

or  discouraged.  ^'  Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome 
the  world."  The  world  order  was  apparently  un- 
altered, but  here  and  there  a  human  heart  had 
caught  his  vision  —  the  vision  of  a  loving,  sacrificing 
God,  interested  in  each  and  every  one  of  all  his 
children,  and  with  this  his  soul  was  satisfied.  Just 
a  few  men  aflame  with  the  vision  of  God  will 
change  the  atmosphere  of  society,  and  if  you  give 
them  time,  they  and  their  successors  will  make 
new  the  structure  of  the  world. 

Christianity  is  the  religion  of  the  brotherhood.  It 
is  also  the  religion  of  the  one  man,  the  one  man  in 
and  for  the  brotherhood.  It  is  the  religion  of  the 
one  sheep,  the  one  coin,  the  one  boy.  It  is  the  reli- 
gion which  throws  its  arms  around  "one  of  these 
little  ones,"  and  which  hears  angels  rejoicing  over  one 
sinner  who  repents.  It  is  the  reHgion  which  closets 
each  man  with  God  and  which  beholds  each  man 
alone  at  the  judgment.  It  is  the  reHgion  which  pic- 
tures the  Son  of  God  standing  on  the  doorstep,  saying, 
'*  Behold  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  ;  if  any  man 
hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in 
to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  me." 

This  is  God's  way.  He  is  the  individualizing 
God.  He  is  mindful  of  the  one  sparrow.  The  hairs 
of  each  human  head  are  all  numbered.     We  come 


114  BUILDING   THE    INDIVIDUAL 

into  the  world  one  at  a  time.  Between  the  cradle 
and  the  grave  we  each  tread  a  path  wide  enough  for 
only  one  pair  of  feet.  We  pass  into  eternity  one  by 
one.  God  delights  in  the  work  of  shaping  and  guid- 
ing the  individual.  Science  tells  us  that  hfe  began 
upon  our  planet  in  jellylike,  undifferentiated  masses. 
From  the  begininng,  however,  all  the  forces  worked 
unceasingly  toward  segregation  and  diversification, 
until  by  and  by  the  individual  was  set  free.  With  the 
advent  of  the  individual  there  began  new  wonders. 
Within  the  individual  the  Lord  of  Hfe  added  miracle 
to  miracle,  until  in  a  glorious  moment  human 
personality  emerged.  The  personality  was  at  first 
rudimentary  and  inchoate,  with  all  its  endowments 
embryonic.  In  the  early  ages  of  human  history  the 
individual  is  obliterated  in  the  tribe,  lost  in  the  na- 
tion, merged  in  the  Hfe  of  institutions  ;  but  through 
the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs,  and  the 
individual  man  gradually  increases  in  wisdom  and 
stature,  until  he  at  last  steps  forth  in  Christ  the 
sovereign  of  the  world.  What  is  history  but  a  long- 
drawn  drama  in  which  the  individual  comes  pain- 
fully but  irresistibly,  and  with  the  manifest  favor 
of  God,  to  his  own?  Every  form  of  collectivism 
is  doomed  which  does  not  develop  the  combined 
energies   and  safeguard    the    total  liberties    and 


BXnLDING   THE   INDIVIDUAL  II 5 

rights  of  the  individual  man.  Evolution  has  in 
many  directions  come  to  an  end.  The  evolution 
of  personaHty  still  goes  forward.  It  does  not 
yet  appear  what  we  shall  be.  We  only  know  we 
shall  be  like  him  in  whom  and  for  whom  we  were 
created.  His  Father  had  been  working  for  ages 
upon  the  individual  man,  and  Jesus  consecrated  him- 
self to  the  selfsame  work.  He  began  always  with 
"a  certain  man."  His  word  to  us  is,  " Follow  me  ! " 
God  is  building  human  personalities.  That  is 
our  work  also.  We  are  co-laborers  with  him. 
Great  preaching  is  preaching  which  sets  free  the 
latent  energies  of  the  soul  and  builds  up  rich  and 
potent  personaUties.  All  great  preachers  are  alike  ^ 
in  this,  they  create  by  their  preaching  resourceful, 
masterful,  and  Godlike  men.  The  greatest  gift 
which  the  church  can  give  the  world  is  a  full-grown 
man,  having  in  him  the  mind  of  Jesus.  Measure 
your  success  as  preachers  not  by  the  size  of  your  con- 
gregation, which  may  after  all  be  only  a  huge  eccle- 
siastical jellyfish,  drifting  aimlessly  and  uselessly 
through  the  social  sea,  but  by  the  stature  and  girth 
of  the  manhood  which  you  develop  in  individual 
believers,  by  the  brotherhness  and  serviceableness 
and  ChristHkeness  of  the  separate  disciples  whom 
you  build  into  the  Christian  brotherhood. 


LECTURE   IV 
BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 


BUILDING  MOODS   AND  TEMPERS 

Having  weighed  the  importance  of  viewing  men 
separately,  let  us  now  look  at  them  massed  together. 
A  Christian  congregation  is  a  human  unit,  and  in  a 
sense  may  be  said  to  have  a  soul.  Each  member 
of  the  congregation  contributes  a  separate  character 
to  form  a  composite  character  wonderful  and  unique. 
A  power  proceeds  from  each  individual  heart,  and 
all  these  separate  powers,  when  blended,  constitute 
another  and  a  higher  form  of  power.  A  congrega- 
tion of  a  thousand  persons  is  something  more  than 
a  thousand  individuals.  When  men  come  together, 
certain  latent  forces  are  set  free,  and  heightened 
capacities  of  thinking  and  feeling  are  unfolded  in 
them.  Where  two  or  three  are  assembled,  the  Lord 
of  Life  is  present  in  a  way  in  which  He  is  not  present 
with  the  isolated  soul.  When  two  or  three  unite  in 
prayer,  heaven  is  responsive  to  degrees  never  reached 
when  men  pray  separately.  There  are  things  to  be 
done,  therefore,  with  and  for  the  church  as  a  whole. 
A  congregation  possesses  a  disposition  as  pronounced 
and  characteristic  as  that  of  any  of  its  members. 

119 


I20  BUILDING   MOODS  AND   TEMPERS 

This  disposition  must  be  moulded  by  the  preacher. 
The  moulding  process  passes  through  its  most  critical 
stages  in  the  hours  of  public  worship.  The  preacher 
is  not  simply  an  instructor,  he  is  a  fashioner  of 
character,  a  maker  of  those  moods  and  tempers 
which  give  character  its  bent  and  sinew.  He  is  a 
builder,  and  his  business  is  to  construct  a  frame  of 
mind. 

He  will  do  this  in  part  by  his  sermons,  and  in 
part  by  other  agencies  ordained  of  God  for  the  fos- 
tering of  godly  dispositions.  Ideas  have  in  them 
transforming  power,  and  so  also  do  certain  attitudes 
and  exercises.  It  is  not  the  intellect  only  which  is 
to  be  reached,  but  that  great  mass  of  instincts 
and  sentiments  which  go  to  make  up  what  we  call 
the  heart.  Young  preachers  are  always  in  danger 
of  overestimating  the  intellect.  Hungry  themselves 
for  ideas,  and  skilful  in  the  art  of  playing  with  them, 
they  not  infrequently  lose  sight  of  those  mighty, 
moving  forces  of  the  soul  which  lie  deeper  than  all 
thought,  and  upon  which  religious  leaders  who  would 
do  enduring  work  must  evermore  rely.  Genuine 
and  living  worship  is  something  which  every 
preacher  covets  for  his  church,  but  not  every 
preacher  gives  himself  devotedly  to  the  work  of 
opening  the  fountains  from  which  the  living  streams 


BXnLDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  121 

of  worship  flow.  If  songs  and  prayers  are  not  to 
shrivel  on  the  Hps,  there  must  be  a  rich  interior 
life,  ministered  unto  according  to  laws  which  the 
preacher  ought  to  know.  Every  preacher  is  desir- 
ous that  his  people  shall  abound  in  good  works,  but 
the  impulse  to  work  for  God  must  be  liberated 
and  strengthened,  and  this  impulse  has  its  home 
and  growth  down  in  the  deep  places  of  the  heart. 
Many  preachers  accomplish  little  because  they 
do  not  go  deep  enough.  They  cater  to  the  intellect, 
but  do  not  stir  the  emotions.  They  offer  sacrifices 
on  the  altar  of  logic  and  forsake  the  God-estabUshed 
altar  of  sentiment.  They  teach  men  the  phrases  of 
an  argument,  but  do  not  train  them  to  sing  a  Te 
Deum.  They  labor  to  instruct  them  to  understand, 
but  not  to  adore  and  wonder.  In  one  church  the 
minister  is  always  preaching  about  work.  He  goads 
his  people  incessantly  to  action.  If  men  only  are 
doing  something,  Hfe's  problem  is  supposed  to  be 
settled.  Themes  for  contemplation  are  steadily 
ignored.  No  attention  is  devoted  to  the  deepening 
of  the  channels  of  the  emotions.  The  inner  springs 
are  quite  forgotten.  Men  are  told  what  they  ought 
to  do,  but  no  attention  is  devoted  to  the  creation  of 
those  dispositions  out  of  which  fruitful  activity 
proceeds.     Such  a  church  invariably  grows  thin. 


122  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

People  are  worn  out  by  the  everlasting  exhortation 
to  be  up  and  doing.  The  clank  of  machinery  is  al- 
ways in  their  ears.  The  Hfe  of  the  church  is  a  dusty 
plain.  There  is  no  mount  of  transfiguration.  It 
is  all  street  and  no  upper  chamber.  The  souls  of 
men  are  impoverished. 

In  another  church  the  preacher  is  always  explain- 
ing something.  He  has  a  philosophic  mind,  and  de- 
lights in  industrial  entanglements,  moral  problems, 
doctrinal  obscurities,  and  spiritual  paradoxes.  He 
speaks  always  to  the  intellect,  and  to  that  little 
corner  of  it  which  is  interested  in  speculative  puz- 
zles. He  leaves  the  heart  out  of  account.  He  does 
nothing  to  stimulate  or  nourish  the  feeHngs.  He 
shirks  the  work  of  building  habits  of  humility, 
gratitude,  and  rejoicing.  He  does  not  know  that 
men  live  by  admiration,  hope,  and  love.  It  is  the 
heart  which  makes  a  preacher,  and  it  is  the  heart 
which  makes  a  church.  The  emotions  give  life  its 
glow  and  glory.  A  starved  heart  means  an  en- 
feebled church.  We  have,  then,  these  two  classes 
of  defective  churches.  In  the  first  class,  the 
church  is  an  office  in  which  various  kinds  of  transac- 
tions are  discussed  and  forwarded  ;  in  the  second 
class,  it  is  a  schoolroom  in  which  divers  doctrines 
and  systems  are  unfolded  and  adorned.     Blessed  is 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  1 23 

the  preacher  who  converts  his  church  into  a  temple, 
and  who,  with  or  without  pictured  windows  and 
without  or  with  the  help  of  ritual  and  rich  architec- 
ture, creates  by  the  conduct  of  the  service  an  at-"^ 
mosphere  in  which  souls  instinctively  look  Godward.  I 
Atmosphere  is  everything.     If  a  church  lacks  at-  ' 
mosphere,  we  need  not  wonder  that  many  will  prefer 
to  stay  at  home.     The  church  must  give  something 
which  no  other  institution  in  the  town  can  offer. 
There  must  be  something  in  the  sanctuary  which 
the  heart  can  instantly  recognize  as  having  come 
from  upper  worlds,  and  which  will  compel  it  to  cry 
out :  "This  is  none  other  than  the  house  of  God. 
This  is  the  gate  of  heaven."    When  a  Christian  mani 
says  he  can  get  more  help  from  books  at  home  than  \ 
from  the  service  of  public  worship,  it  is  because  his 
nature  is  abnormal  or  because  there  is  a  fatal  defect 
in   the   church   service.     To  build   a  worshipping 
mood  in  his  congregation,  to  create  an  atmosphere 
in  which  souls  shall  stand  awe-struck  in  the  pres- 
ence of  their  Creator,  is  a   cardinal  part  of   the 
preacher's  stupendous  task. 

He  cannot  accompHsh  this  without  using  all  the 
agencies  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  honored  through 
the  centuries.  To  make  the  sermon  the  be-all  and 
the   end-all    of   public   worship   is   a    devastating 


124  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

blunder.  Ministers  who  crowd  praise  and  prayer 
into  a  corner,  labelling  them  "preliminaries,"  do 
not  know  what  they  do.  Among  other  things,  they 
cut  down  the  size  of  their  possible  congregation. 
The  worshipping  instinct  is  more  deeply  seated  than 
is  the  sermon-hearing  instinct,  and  more  nearly 
universal.  Many  minds  and  hearts  respond  to  the 
call  to  prayer  which  make  no  reply  to  the  summons 
of  a  sermon.  Little  children  drink  in  the  music, 
and  then  fall  asleep  in  the  midst  of  the  preacher's 
noblest  argument.  Plain  and  unlettered  folk, 
lacking  the  intellectual  discipHne  which  enables 
them  to  follow  the  thread  of  a  learned  discourse, 
find  relief  and  uplift  in  pouring  out  their  hearts  to 
God  in  song  and  pra3^er.  Cultivated  Christians, 
uninterested  in  the  particular  discussion  or  exhor- 
tation of  the  day,  will  go  home  edified  if  the  service 
has  been  what  it  ought  to  be.  Business  men, 
fagged  and  jaded  by  the  week's  hard  work,  reluctant 
to  grapple  with  a  reasoned  argument,  are  more 
likely  to  go  to  church  if  they  are  sure  of  finding 
there  that  which  lifts  and  cleanses  and  furnishes 
them  surcease  of  care.  We  preachers  minister  to  a 
myriad-sided  human  nature,  with  manifold  appetites 
and  cravings,  and  the  sermon  is  only  one  of  many 
channels  through  which  God's  grace  finds  the  soul. 


sM^ 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  1 25 

Not  only  does  the  preacher  increase  the  size  of  his 
congregation  by  ministering  to  men's  devotional 
nature,  but  he  expands  its  capacity  for  assimilating 
his  message.  Preaching  is  a  reciprocal  business.  It  \ 
is  a  matter  of  giving  and  taking,  and  the  taking  is  < 
no  less  important  than  the  giving.  A  sermon  is  a  ] 
joint  product,  the  creation  of  the  preacher  and  the 
people.  The  prosperity  of  a  sermon  depends  both 
on  the  tongue  that  speaks  and  also  on  the  ear  that 
hears.  What  matters  it  how  consecrated  and  able 
the  preacher,  if  the  minds  of  the  hearers  are  not 
prepared  for  his  message  ?  After  the  experiences  of 
the  week,  men  and  women  are  in  no  mood  on  the 
Lord's  day  to  listen  without  preparation  to  a  spirit- 
ual message.  Confusions  and  distractions  must  be 
removed  from  the  mind.  AHenations  and  resent- 
ments must  be  cleansed  from  the  heart.  The  stains 
of  recent  sin  must  be  washed  from  the  spirit.  Men 
have  been  laboring  in  separated  fields,  each  one  shut 
in  by  the  bounds  of  his  own  specific  task,  and  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week  they  emerge  from  their  isolation 
and  all  are  together  in  one  place.  Discordant  feel- 
ings must  be  reduced  to  harmony.  Wandering 
thoughts  must  be  subdued  to  reverent  attention. 
The  sermon  goes  forth  in  vain  unless  the  congrega- 
tion is  unified  and  hearts  have  become  responsive 


126  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

and  docile.  Music  and  prayer  are  God's  instru- 
ments for  the  taming  of  lawless  impulses,  and  for  the 
creation  of  spiritual  unities  and  harmonies.  A 
reverent  mood  is  indispensable  to  the  victory  of  a 
sermon.  Reverence  is  the  mother  of  attention, 
and  men  in  their  reverent  moments  listen  gladly  to 
truths  whose  home  is  in  heavenly  places.  The 
more  completely  socialized  the  congregation,  the 
more  swiftly  will  the  word  of  the  Lord  run  and  be 
glorified.  He  is  an  ignorant  preacher  who  strives 
to  make  his  sermon  everything.  By  making  it 
more  than  it  can  be,  he  makes  it  less  than  it 
might  be. 

To  the  preacher  who  desires  the  mightiest 
possible  effect  for  his  sermon,  there  are  no  prelimi- 
naries in  the  order  of  public  worship.  From  the 
opening  tone  of  the  organ  onward  to  the  benedic- 
tion, the  service  is  a  high  and  solemn  transaction 
with  God.  The  first  thing  essential  in  a  Christian 
congregation  is  a  reverential  mood.  The  fear  of 
the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom,  and  without  it  a 
church  service  is  empty  and  debilitating.  To  create 
and  sustain  this  mood,  the  preacher  must  understand 
the  value  of  silence  and  the  indispensable  influence 
of  forms.  It  is  for  him  so  to  plan  as  to  secure  those 
physical  conditions  which  will  enable  the  service 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  12^ 

to  go  forward  unmarred  and  unimpeded.  The 
worship  must  not  be  allowed  to  be  trampled  under 
the  careless  feet  of  late  comers.  Ushers  must  not 
flit  up  and  down  the  aisles  during  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  or  the  singing  of  the  anthem.  Belated 
stragglers  must  not  be  granted  a  permit  to  proceed 
to  their  pews  during  the  prayers.  All  late  comers 
should  be  detained  at  the  church  door,  and  be 
permitted  to  take  their  seats  only  at  stated  pauses 
in  the  service  provided  for  their  accommodation. 
It  is  astonishing  how  careless  many  ministers  are 
in  the  conduct  of  pubUc  worship.  In  ignorance  or 
contempt  of  eternal  spiritual  laws,  they  allow  the 
worship  to  degenerate  into  a  slovenly  and  slipshod 
thing,  devoid  of  all  power  to  solemnize  and  elevate 
the  heart. 

Forms  of  worship  are  sacraments,  visible  signs  of 
an  in\dsible  grace.  There  are  ministers  who  seem 
to  be  afraid  of  them.  InformaHty  alone,  so  they 
think,  is  pleasing  to  the  Almighty.  To  act  in  the 
house  of  God  as  one  carries  himself  at  home,  and  to 
speak  to  the  High  and  Holy  One  who  inhabits 
eternity,  in  the  familiar,  unconventional  phrases 
of  everyday  life,  is  to  them  the  only  sure  safeguard 
against  formality  and  superstition.  We  do  well 
indeed  to  be  on  our  guard  against  formalism,  for 


128  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

formalism  is  the  use  of  forms  run  to  seed.  But 
forms  are  ordained  of  God.  When  rightly  used, 
they  educate  and  bless.  They  are  not  only  the 
conservators,  but  the  nourishers,  of  the  life  of  the 
heart.  Without  forms  life  cannot  maintain  itself 
at  high  levels.  It  is  by  its  forms  that  government 
renders  itself  majestic,  and  society  maintains  its 
tone.  Religion  is  wedded  to  form  by  the  will  of 
God.  Posture  in  prayer  is  not  a  trifle.  Behavior 
in  the  house  of  God  is  a  factor  in  the  moulding 
of  character.  The  heart  life  is  kept  warm  and  true 
by  fine  fideHty  to  the  modes  and  patterns  by  which 
it  expresses  itself.  The  forms  of  devotion  in  the 
church  should  be  kept  dignified  and  beautiful. 
InformaHty  is  not  evidence  of  piety  nor  a  scorn  of 
forms  proof  of  exalted  spirituaHty.  It  is  fitting  that 
in  the  house  of  God  worshippers  shall  show  in  their 
outer  conduct  their  sense  of  their  sinfulness  and 
their  consciousness  of  standing  in  the  presence  of  an 
infinite  and  holy  God.  In  the  making  of  moods, 
forms  are  as  essential  as  moulds  are  in  the  shaping 
of  bricks. 

In  the  building  of  a  reverential  mood,  no  form  of 
worship  is  so  efficacious  as  public  prayer.  It  is 
written  that  the  apostolic  church  ''continued  stead- 
fastly in    the   apostles'   teaching   and    fellowship, 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  1 29 

in  the  breaking  of  bread  and  the  prayers."  The 
men  who  were  converted  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost 
kept  themselves  alive  by  prayer.  When  the  work  of 
church  administration  began  to  absorb  too  much 
of  the  apostles'  energy  and  time,  they  threw  off  this 
burden  upon  the  shoulders  of  other  men,  declaring 
that  it  was  their  supreme  business  to  give  them- 
selves to  prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word. 
The  preacher  must  always  be  a  man  of  prayer.  His 
spirit  must  be  deeply  devotional.  If  by  nature  he 
is  not  reverential,  then  by  constant  and  arduous 
discipHne  he  must  bring  his  nature  into  subjection. 
He  will  give  his  days  and  nights  to  the  study  of  the 
classics  of  the  devotional  Hterature  of  the  church, 
and  will  meditate  often  upon  the  themes  which  have 
in  them  most  power  to  solemnize  and  open  the  heart. 
Of  Saul  of  Tarsus  it  was  said,  ''Behold  he  prays  !'* 
This  is  the  starting-point  of  all  successful  preaching. 
Only  men  constant  in  prayer  preach  the  gospel 
with  power.  The  preacher  must  lead  his  people  in 
prayer.  He  must  pray  for  them  and  with  them. 
His  prayers  are  in  reaHty  sermons.  They  are  a  part 
of  his  publication  of  the  love  of  God.  They  are 
not  picturesque  and  ceremonious  preliminaries, 
moving  in  advance  of  his  sermons,  but  are  in  them- 
selves messages  of  his  soul,  opening  up  the  way  to 


13©  BUILDING  MOODS  AND  TEMPERS 

God.  All  public  prayer  is  of  necessity  seen  of  men, 
and  the  form  of  it  is  consequently  not  to  be  despised 
or  slighted.  The  form  must  be  such  as  to  help  the 
flow  of  the  devotional  feeling  of  the  congregation. 
Any  feature  of  the  prayer  which  rasps  or  jars,  sub- 
tracts from  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  lifting 
hearts  to  heavenly  altitudes.  A  preacher  can  shake 
the  entire  fabric  of  a  church's  devotion  by  awkward 
and  ill-mannered  praying.  Prayer  is  a  form  of 
power,  and  the  force  of  it  can  be  broken  by  slipshod 
sentences  and  rambling  repetitions  and  effusive 
clamorings.  The  spirit  of  the  prayer  must  of  course 
be  right,  but  so  also  must  its  substance  and  form. 
It  is  the  duty,  therefore,  of  the  preacher  to  prepare 
his  prayers,  —  or  at  least  to  prepare  for  them,  — and 
no  part  of  his  work  is  more  critical  and  taxing. 
So  immense  is  the  labor  involved  that  many  men 
shrink  from  it,  either  offering  prayers  entirely  ex- 
tempore, or  entering  a  denomination  which  furnishes 
the  relief  of  a  liturgy.  A  man  can  read  a  prayer  or 
he  can  roll  out  offhand  a  string  of  prayer-shaped 
sentences  without  spiritual  preparedness;  but  to  lead 
a  congregation  week  after  week,  year  after  year, 
to  the  throne  of  grace  along  paths  of  the  preacher's 
own  choosing  lays  a  tax  upon  human  nature  to  which 
it  is  not  easy  to  submit.    The  man  who  uses  a  liturgy 


j  insiaious  ana 
r  is  a  form  of  t 
of  sins.     It  is    ] 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  I3I 

IS  always  tempted  to  rely  upon  the  form  rather  than 
the  spirit,  and  the  man  who  throws  away  the  liturgy 
is  subjected  to  a  temptation  no  less  insidious  and 
disastrous.  Extemporaneous  prayer 
liberty  which  harbors  a  multitude 
often  taken  for  granted  that  because  a  man  is  given 
the  privilege  of  framing  each  Sunday  his  own  prayers 
he  holds  a  license  to  mould  them  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment.  The  result  is  that  in  many  a  church  there 
is  a  type  of  confused  and  deformed  praying  which  is 
both  scandalous  and  insufferable.  Many  a  Chris- 
tian of  cultivation  has  been  driven  into  a  Hturgical 
church,  because  he  could  endure  no  longer  the  un- 
kempt and  boorish  prayers  of  his  pastor.  Men  and 
women  of  refinement  cannot  be  led  to  the  throne  of 
grace  by  a  man  who  lacerates  all  the  nerves  of  taste 
at  every  step  in  his  supplications.  Prayers  as 
well  as  sermons  must  be  prepared,  not  necessarily 
in  every  phrase  and  word,  but  by  meditation  and  a 
careful  survey,  first  of  the  needs  of  the  congrega- 
tion and  then  of  the  needs  of  the  church  universaM 
There  was  a  superstition  once  that  prepared  sermons 
were  an  abomination  to  the  Lord,  inasmuch  as  that 
they  interfered  with  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  the  preacher's  brain  and  heart  in  the  hour 
when  he  stood  before  the  people.    Happily  for  the 


132  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

world  that  superstition  has  passed  away.  Experi- 
ence has  proved  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  better 
opportunity  to  work  his  will  through  a  sermon 
which  has  been  prepared  by  long  and  patient  labor, 
than  through  the  flighty  and  rhapsodical  mouthings 
of  a  preacher  averse  to  study.  There  is  another 
superstition  from  which  the  church  is  not  yet  quite 
emancipated,  the  notion  that  a  man  can  pray  more 
sincerely  and  more  nearly  in  accordance  with  God's 
will,  if  he  trusts  entirely  to  the  guidance  of  the 
Spirit  as  that  guidance  is  offered  at  the  passing 
moment.  The  two  superstitions  are  alike.  Effec- 
tive sermons  cannot  be,  ordinarily,  left  to  the  caprice 
or  feeling  of  the  moment,  nor  can  a  congregation  be 
most  surely  led  to  the  throne  of  God  by  a  man  who 
starts  upon  the  journey  not  knowing  by  what  route 
he  is  going.  Stumbling  here  and  there,  retracing 
one's  steps  now  and  then,  using  the  wrong  adjective 
or  adverb  because  the  right  one  will  not  come, 
these  may  be  small  matters  to  the  Almighty,  but 
they  are  not  small  to  men;  and  as  the  preacher  is 
praying  for  the  sake  of  those  who  listen,  he  is  bound 
to  use  such  verbal  forms  as  shall  best  open  men's 
hearts  for  the  incoming  of  God's  spirit. 

The  content  of  prayer  must  also  be  carefully 
considered.    Paul  was  particular,  not  only  about 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  I33 

the  spirit  and  manner  of  prayer,  but  also  about  the 
petitions  which  should  have  a  place  in  the  worship 
of  the  Christian  society.  He  desired  that  the 
prayers  should  have  reach  and  range.  They  were 
to  include  not  only  the  men  at  the  bottom,  but  also 
the  men  at  the  top.  Rulers  and  kings  were  not 
to  be  forgotten,  even  though  they  had  no  sympathy 
with  the  Christian  faith.  All  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men  were  to  be  remembered,  because  it  is  God's 
wish  that  all  men  shall  be  saved.  The  prayers  in 
the  church  were  not  to  be  folded  round  the  local 
congregation,  or  even  the  church  universal;  they 
were  to  include  the  wide  world.  There  was  to  be 
a  reach  to  the  prayers,  and  a  breadth,  and  depth. 
The  length  and  the  breadth  and  the  height  were  to 
be  equal.  Not  every  preacher  Kves  up  to  the 
apostle's  ideal.  PubHc  prayer  often  becomes  con- 
tracted in  range,  and  is  brought  down  to  levels 
lower  than  those  on  which  the  prayer  of  the  church 
ought  to  move.  By  carelessness  in  the  shaping  of 
his  prayers,  a  preacher  may  stunt  not  only  his  own 
nature,  but  the  spiritual  sympathies  and  suscepti- 
biUties  of  his  people.  If  in  his  prayers  he  carries 
on  his  heart  the  church  universal  and  all  nations 
and  races,  his  church  will  do  Hkewise.  More 
things  are  wrought  by  the  preacher's  prayers  than 


\ 


134  BUILDING   MOODS  AND  TEMPERS 

the  preacher  himself  dreams  of.  There  have  been 
ages  in  Christian  history  when  the  prayers  drove 
out  the  sermon.  There  are  churches  in  our  age 
in  which  there  is  danger  that  the  sermon  may  drive 
out  the  prayers.  Both  are  ordained  of  God, 
and  what  God  hath  joined,  let  no  preacher  put 
asimder. 

Music  is  also  a  form  of  power  which  may  be  used 
for  the  creation  of  those  particular  tempers  in  which 
the  Christian  rehgion  finds  delight.  The  gift  of 
song  is  primeval.  Man  is  by  nature  musical.  By 
divine  fiat  he  is  a  singing  animal.  Men  have  from 
the  beginning  loved  music.  There  is  a  Lamech  sing- 
ing in  the  early  dawn  of  the  history  of  every  people, 
and  a  Jubal  fashioning  harps  and  pipes.  The 
Jewish  church  seized  upon  this  natural  aptitude  and 
made  use  of  it  in  the  temple  service,  in  every  syna- 
gogue, and  in  every  Jewish  home.  On  the  night 
on  which  Jesus  was  betrayed,  he  and  his  disciples, 
true  to  the  traditions  of  their  nation,  sang  psalms. 
Our  Lord  went  into  the  shadows  of  Gethsemane 
singing.  What  the  Jewish  church  did  well,  the 
Christian  church  has  done  still  better.  It  was  never 
known  how  much  music  lies  in  the  human  soul,  till 
the  angels  sang  their  song  of  peace  and  good- will, 
and  Jesus  mellowed  the  hearts  of  men  by  his  heav- 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  I35 

enly  message.  Music  as  we  know  it  may  be  said 
to  be  the  daughter  of  the  Christian  church.  By 
liberating  the  heart,  Christianity  made  a  new  devel- 
opment of  music  inevitable.  When  PHny  lifts  the 
curtain  and  enables  us  to  look  upon  a  first  century 
congregation  in  thsH  of  worship,  we  behold  it 
singing.  The  church  of  Christ  has  been  singing  ever 
since  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  It  is  significant  that 
with  the  coming  of  each  new  baptism  of  the  Spirit 
there  has  come  a  fuller  flood  of  song.  The  Lollards 
filled  all  England  with  their  singing,  and  the  followers 
of  Luther  struck  terror  into  the  Catholic  hierarchy 
by  their  carols.  The  Wesleyans  announced  by  their 
singing  that  a  new  epoch  in  Christian  history  had 
dawned.  From  the  days  of  the  apostles  to  the  last 
church  revival,  it  is  true  that  when  the  Spirit  of 
God  moves  mightily,  the  people  burst  into  song. 
This  is  because  music  is  the  language  of  the  heart. 
Song  is  the  natural  speech  of  the  emotions.  When 
the  heart  is  stirred,  it  sings.  By  singing  it  stirs 
itself  still  more  deeply.  Music  not  only  expresses, 
but  intensifies,  the  feelings.  The  mood  which  a 
song  expresses  is  strengthened  and  perpetuated  by 
the  singing  of  the  song.  No  man  sings  to  himself. 
He  sings  also  unto  others.  He  communicates  his 
mood  to  those  who  hear  him.     When   men  and 


136  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

women  sing  together,  they  impart  to  one  another 
the  sentiment  of  that  which  they  sing,  and  thus 
community  of  feeling  is  established,  and  spirits  are 
brought  into  beautiful  accord.  If  by  prayer  the 
human  heart  is  awed  and  elevated,  then  by  song  the 
human  heart  is  socialized  and  broadened.  Music 
expands  the  sympathies  and  feeds  the  social  nature. 
Self-centredness  and  exclusiveness  melt  down  un- 
der the  reign  of  melody.  Touched  by  the  spell 
of  harmonious  tones,  minds  and  hearts  flow  to- 
gether, and  the  congregation  becomes  one  soul. 
Music  is  a  language  universal.  Every  heart  can 
understand  it.  Sentimentally  every  man  is  dis- 
posed to  music,  even  though  organically  he  may  be 
like  Charles  Lamb,  incapable  of  a  tune.  In  music 
there  is  something  heavenly  before  which  earthly 
moods  and  worldly  tempers  inevitably  give  way. 
The  basest  man  feels  less  sordid  after  he  has  been 
immersed  in  a  fountain  of  song.  The  streams  of 
tone  wipe  out  dividing  lines,  efface  the  springs  of 
bitterness,  wear  away  estranging  walls,  and  bring 
the  congregation  out  into  a  large  and  wealthy 
place.  Music,  when  rightly  used,  does  the  very 
work  which  the  preacher  wants  accomplished.  It 
develops  the  sense  of  fellowship  and  builds  up  the 
brotherhood. 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  I37 

Like  all  things  divine,  music  is  dangerous.  Many 
churches  have  what  they  call  the  music  problem. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  music  scandal.  Many  a  preacher 
has  heard  the  most  heart-racking  discords  of  his 
parish  proceeding  from  the  music.  Music  may  con- 
vert itself  into  a  peacock  and  exist  only  for  the  sake 
of  display.  Display  in  the  house  of  God  is  abomi- 
nable, and  music  when  used  for  display,  instead  of 
being  an  angel  to  build  up,  becomes  a  devil  to  tear 
down.  The  preacher  will  therefore  be  watchful 
as  to  the  personality  and  spirit  of  the  man  who  is 
chosen  leader  of  the  church  music.  The  musical 
director  must  be  a  Christian  man.  He  is  an  ap- 
pointed minister  of  Christ,  and  must  therefore  have 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  The  man  who  leads  the  service 
in  which  emotion  is  predominant  and  the  man 
who  leads  the  service  in  which  thought  is  regnant 
have  equal  need  of  the  baptism  which  comes  from 
heaven.  A  church  should  no  more  think  of  placing] 
its  music  in  the  hands  of  an  unchristian  man  than  of 
inviting  to  the  pulpit  a  man  making  no  professions 
of  Christian  discipleship.  How  can  a  pagan  and 
a  Christian  work  together  in  Christ's  temple? 
More  than  one  church  has  been  unaccountably 
blind  at  this  point,  and  has  paid  more  than  double 
for  its  unpardonable  blunder. 


138  BUILDING   MOODS  AND   TEMPERS 

With  the  musical  direction  in  the  hands  of  a  Chris- 
tian man,  large  latitude  may  be  allowed  in  the  selec- 
tion of  musical  forms.  There  is  no  reason  why  a 
part  of  the  musical  service  should  not  be  led  by  one 
voice,  or  by  two  voices,  or  by  three  or  four  or  eight 
voices,  or  by  a  chorus  of  a  large  number  of  voices. 
One  voice  can  do  what  many  voices  cannot  do,  and 
a  quartette  can  do  things  which  are  impossible  to 
a  soloist  or  a  chorus.  In  the  interpretation  of  the 
musical  masterpieces  of  adoration  and  thanksgiving, 
there  are  diversities  of  ministrations,  and  the  same 
Lord;  and  diversities  of  workings,  but  the  same 
God  who  worketh  all  things  in  all.  The  one  thing 
to  insist  on  is  that  the  people  shall  be  granted  their 
rightful  place  in  the  worship.  All  the  people  must 
be  given  opportunity  to  sing.  The  entire  company 
of  the  redeemed  must  utter  praises.  Worship  must 
not  be  monopolized  by  a  class.  All  Christians  are 
priests  unto  God.  To  silence  the  congregation  is  to 
quench  the  Spirit.  If  the  church  prefers  to  remain 
dumb,  it  is  because  its  life  is  at  low  ebb.  A  silent 
church  must  be  trained  to  become  vocal.  Only  a 
songful  church  can  listen  appreciatively  to  a  sermon 
or  engage  triumphantly  in  Christian  service.  If 
the  people  sing  badly,  the  next  step  is  not  to  clip  the 
hymns  and  lengthen  the  sermon,  but  to  make  room 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  I39 

for  additional  hymns.  If  a  church  does  not  like 
to  sing,  it  is  because  it  is  emotionally  depleted. 
New  life  can  be  imparted,  not  by  increased  intellec- 
tuahty  in  the  pulpit,  but  by  a  freer  exercise  of  the 
heart  in  the  pews.  When  Paul  exhorts  Christians 
to  awake  from  their  sleep  and  to  arise  from  the  dead, 
he  bids  them  to  speak  one  to  another  in  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  making  melody  with 
their  hearts  to  the  Lord,  giving  thanks  alway  for  all 
things  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  God. 
Singing  is  not  then  a  preHminary  of  the  sermon, 
something  to  be  indulged  in  until  the  late  comers 
have  arrived,  or  an  interloper  to  be  watched  con- 
stantly with  a  jealous  eye,  but  a  sort  of  preaching, 
a  public  proclamation  of  the  goodness  and  long- 
suffering  kindness  of  God.  It  is  a  means  of  grace 
and  helps  one  to  say,  ''I  beHeve  in  the  communion 
of  saints."  The  preacher  who  wishes  to  bring  his 
church  into  the  attitude  and  disposition  of  Christ, 
and  to  fortify  it  against  unchristian  tempers,  will 
steadily  make  use  of  the  tongues  of  his  people  in  the 
musical  exercises  of  praise.  Many  a  mim'ster  would 
to-day  have  a  larger  and  more  responsive  congrega- 
tion, had  he  only  persistently  and  systematically 
encouraged  his  people  to  take  part  in  the  service  of 
song. 


140  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

Bible  reading  is  another  agency  ordained  by  God 
for  the  creation  and  upbuilding  of  moods.  Like 
prayer  and  song,  it  is  also  a  form  of  preaching.  It 
antedates  our  modern  sermon.  Through  centuries 
of  Jewish  history  the  reading  of  the  scriptures  was 
the  chief  source  of  instruction  and  inspiration  to 
the  people.  At  the  council  of  Jerusalem,  James 
identified  preaching  and  reading  when  he  said, 
**  Moses  from  generations  of  old  hath  in  every  city 
them  that  preach  him,  being  read  in  the  synagogue 
every  Sabbath."  Why  should  we  not  regard  the 
public  reading  of  holy  scripture  as  a  form  of  preach- 
ing, not  a  preHminary  to  be  hurried  through  while 
the  members  of  the  congregation  are  finding  their 
pews,  but  an  integral  and  cardinal  part  of  the  preach- 
ing service  ?  It  is  strange  indeed  that  any  man  who 
believes  in  the  unique  inspiration  of  the  men  who 
wrote  the  Scriptures  should  be  willing  to  read  the 
Bible  with  lukewarm  and  begrudging  emphasis,  put- 
ting his  own  words  in  the  place  of  honor,  and  using 
the  sentences  of  prophets  and  apostles  and  the 
Lord  himself  as  humble  avenues  leading  up  to  the 
splendid  palace  of  his  own  august  creation.  If  it 
be  true  that  God  of  old  time  spoke  in  the  prophets 
by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,  and  that 
at  the  end  of  those  days  spoke  to  us  in  his  Son,  it 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  I41 

is  certainly  unbecoming  in  preachers  to  read  the 
Scriptures  with  conspicuous  negligence  or  hurry 
through  them  as  though  they  were  a  barrier  shut- 
ting men  out  from  the  rich  pastures  of  the  sermon. 
And  if  it  be  a  fact,  as  Paul  declares,  that  ''every 
Scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profitable  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction 
which  is  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may 
be  complete,  furnished  completely  unto  every  good 
work,"  it  would  seem  that  the  preacher  has  no  more 
important  duty  than  reading  these  Scriptures  to 
his  people. 

There  are  reasons  why  Bible  reading  in  the 
church  should  just  now  be  exalted.  We  are  living 
in  a  hurried  age,  and  the  pressure  of  life  is  tremen- 
dous. Men  are  driven  through  the  days  and  weeks 
as  by  so  many  furies,  and  because  of  this  precipi- 
tate haste,  certain  customs  which  flourished  in  the 
former  times  are  falling  into  desuetude.  Family 
worship  is  not  so  common  in  Christian  homes  as  it 
was  a  generation  ago,  and  the  Bible  has  been  sup- 
planted in  many  circles  by  the  magazines  and  papers. 
Let  the  preacher  read  the  Bible  to  a  generation  tooi 
preoccupied  to  read  it  for  itself.  During  the  entire 
lifetime  of  men  now  living,  the  Bible  has  been  the 
subject  of  vehement  and  distracting  controversy. 


142  BUILDING  MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

The  old  theories  of  inspiration  and  inerrancy  have 
been  found  untenable,  and  a  new  conception  has 
not  yet  been  completely  formed  in  the  popular  mind 
and  heart.  Laymen  in  large  numbers  are  bewil- 
dered by  the  swarms  of  critical  theories  as  to  the 
origin  and  authority  of  the  Bible,  and  from  this 
bewilderment  many  preachers  themselves  have  not 
emerged.  The  movement  of  Biblical  criticism  was 
inevitable.  It  is  not  to  be  lamented,  but  rejoiced 
over.  Scores  of  conscientious  scholars  have  labored 
with  enthusiasm  and  fidelity  to  ascertain  the  facts 
in  regard  to  authorship,  and  the  formation  of  the 
canon.  Results  have  been  obtained,  munerous, 
substantial,  and  invaluable.  But  in  aU  such  move- 
ments there  is  much  human  frailty  and  imperfection. 
Theories  are  often  advanced  with  nothing  to  com- 
mend them  but  their  novelty,  and  conclusions  are 
promulgated  upon  which  it  is  unsafe  to  build.  A 
considerable  part  of  all  that  has  been  published  in 
the  name  of  higher  criticism  is  hay  and  wood  and 
stubble,  and  will  be  some  day  viewed  with  the  same 
amused  wonder  with  which  we  now  look  at  the 
dreary  speculations  of  the  schoohnen.  Critical 
theories,  proclaimed  with  blast  of  tnmipets  and 
received  with  a  shout,  fall  dead  one  after  the  other, 
and  no  matter  what  the  present  dominant  theory 


BUILDING   MOODS  AND   TEMPERS  I43 

is,  the  chances  are  that  the  feet  of  those  who  buried 
its  predecessor  are  at  the  door  ready  to  carry  it  out. 
Every  thinking  man  must  of  necessity  have  a  theory 
of  the  Bible,  but  it  is  important  to  remember  that 
the  Bible  is  more  than  any  theory  of  the  Bible. 
Young  preachers  filled  with  the  latest  speculations 
of  the  schools  sometimes  err  in  making  their  no- 
tions of  the  Scriptures  more  conspicuous  than  the 
Scriptures  themselves.  It  is  possible  so  to  overlay 
the  Bible  with  hypotheses  and  guesses  as  to  prevent 
it  doing  its  God-appointed  work.  No  matter  what 
your  view  may  be  of  the  composition  and  structure 
of  the  Scriptures,  read  them  to  your  people.  The 
last  word  of  BibHcal  criticism  has  not  been  written. 
Many  of  the  conclusions  of  the  latest  scholarship 
are  only  tentative  and  will  be  revised  several  times 
before  your  heads  are  gray.  Read  the  Bible  to  your 
people  without  comment.  Do  not  muffle  its  music 
in  the  folds  of  your  conjectures.  Let  its  organ  tones 
sound  out,  finding  those  who  have  ears  to  hear.  Do 
not  dim  its  light  by  your  assumptions.  Let  it  shine 
undarkened  by  interpretations.  Do  not  quench 
its  fire  by  your  suppositions.  Let  it  radiate  its  heat, 
and  who  knows  how  many  hearts  may  be  melted. 
Do  not  dull  the  edge  of  it  by  wrapping  round  it  your 
conceits  or  guesses.    Let  it  cut.    It  may  prove  to 


144  BUILDING   MOODS  AND  TEMPERS 

be  even  in  the  twentieth  century  ''living  and  active 
and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  and  piercing 
even  to  the  dividing  of  the  soul  and  spirit.'* 

No  matter  what  you  may  think  of  the  Pentateuchal 
sources,  or  of  the  number  of  Isaiahs,  or  the  author- 
ship of  the  Psalms,  or  the  extent  of  interpolated 
passages  in  the  Gospels,  the  fact  remains  that  the 
Bible  is  the  book  of  books,  and  is  able  to  make  wise 
unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 
It  is  a  world  power,  and  the  wise  preacher  will  make 
generous  use  of  it.  He  can  build  up  his  congregation 
by  reading  the  Scriptures.  Men  who  care  little  for 
his  sermons  will  come  to  church  if  he  knows  how  to 
read  the  prophets  and  apostles.  His  congregation 
will  grow  constantly  in  sensitiveness  to  religious  ap- 
peal and  in  capacity  for  assimilating  religious  truth, 
if  only  it  is  steeped  in  the  Scriptures.  The  more 
of  the  Bible  men  hear,  the  more  will  they  want  to 
hear.  It  is  not  because  people  know  the  Bible  that 
they  take  scant  interest  in  sermons.  It  is  because 
they  are  ignorant  of  it.  It  is  the  children  who  have 
been  fed  the  Scriptures  from  infancy  who  become 
the  men  and  the  women  who  listen  with  keenest 
appreciation  to  what  the  preacher  has  to  say. 
The  lad  in  Lystra  who  was  most  attracted  by  the 
travelling  preacher,  Paul,  was  the  boy  who  knew 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  1 45 

from  a  babe  the  sacred  writings.  If  you  desire  a 
congregation  hungry  for  your  sermons,  then  read 
them  the  Bible.  It  contains  the  food  which  builds 
up  the  faculties  to  which  a  preacher  speaks,  and 
upon  which  he  must  rely.  It  is  a  book  of  voices, 
thrilKng,  piercing,  mysterious  voices  whose  accents 
stir  powers  in  the  human  soul  which  are  deep  and 
sleeping  and  haunt  the  spirit  with  a  bewitching 
music  which  will  not  let  it  go.  It  finds  men  both  at 
their  highest  and  their  deepest.  It  sweeps  through 
a  wider  gamut  of  thought  and  feeling  than  any  one 
man  is  master  of.  It  offers  a  more  myriad-sided 
wisdom  than  any  one  soul  possesses.  It  will  reach 
men  whom  you  in  your  sermons  will  never  reach. 
It  creates  moods  and  chastens  tempers  as  no 
other  book  in  all  the  world.  It  produces  a  climate 
in  which  sermons  come  to  luxuriant  growth.  For 
your  own  sake  you  need  to  read  the  Scriptures  to 
your  people  with  mind  and  heart  and  soul.  It 
is  when  a  man  is  filled  with  the  spirit  which  burned 
in  the  hearts  of  the  Bible  saints  and  heroes  that  he 
feels  most  like  preaching.  It  is  then  that  he  cries, 
^'Woe  is  me  if  I  do  not  preach."  The  Bible  builds 
up  both  the  laity  and  the  clergy.  Its  words  are 
spirit,  they  are  life.  They  stir  and  kindle,  they 
illumine  and  move.     They  have  hands  and  feet,  they 


146  BUILDING  MOODS  AND   TEMPERS 

work  miracles.  Men  who  drink  them  in  become 
able  to  stop  the  mouths  of  lions  and  to  quench  the 
violence  of  fire. 

Prepare  yourselves,  therefore,  to  become  Bible 
readers.  Train  yourself  with  that  end  in  view. 
Discipline  your  voice  until  it  becomes  flexible  and 
capacious,  capable  of  expressing  the  emotions  which 
the  prophets  felt,  and  the  visions  which  the  apostles 
saw.  Practise  Bible  reading  every  week.  Per- 
fection comes  only  by  practice.  The  art  of  reading 
is  a  fine  and  difficult  art,  and  no  man  learns  in  his 
sleep  how,  by  modulation  and  by  accent,  by  into- 
nation and  by  emphasis,  to  interpret  the  sentences 
which  have  been  written  for  men's  comfort.  There 
is  no  excuse  for  shabby  Bible  reading.  Not  every 
man  can  be  a  brilliant  preacher,  but  every  man  can 
be  a  good  Bible  reader.  If  he  cannot  himself  create 
great  sermons,  he  can  read  with  grace  and  force  the 
sermons  which  holy  men  of  old  delivered.  Let  us 
hope  the  time  will  come  when  no  man  will  be  gradu- 
ated from  a  theological  seminary  without  having 
passed  an  examination  in  Bible  reading,  and  when 
no  man  can  be  ordained  to  the  Christian  ministry 
who  is  not  a  good  Bible  reader.  Negligence  at  this 
point  is  not  only  mental  dullness  but  a  moral 
delinquency. 


BUILDING   MOODS  AND   TEMPERS  147 

Resolve,  then,  to  read  the  Bible  generously  to 
your  people.  Read  the  Old  Testament  as  weU  as 
the  New,  the  Epistles  no  less  than  the  Gospels.  Do 
not  allow  your  people  to  infer  that  there  are  only  a 
few  narrow  shreds  and  isolated  patches  worthy  of 
a  modern  man's  attention.  Keep  alive  in  men's 
hearts  reverence  for  the  Bible  as  a  whole.  Read  its 
history  and  poetry,  its  biography  and  letters,  its 
sermons  and  its  prophecies.  Read  them  in  all  the 
meetings  of  the  church,  in  the  meetings  of  pubHc 
worship  and  in  the  prayer  meeting,  in  the  Bible 
school  and  in  the  missionary  societies.  Drench 
your  church  in  the  spirit  of  the  Bible.  Read  it  like 
a  man  of  prayer.  Read  it  like  a  prophet  of  Jehovah. 
Read  it  like  a  lover  subdued  by  its  message.  New 
light  will  break  forth  from  it  every  time  you  take  its 
words  upon  your  lips.  God  has  spoken  often  through 
the  book,  and  often  will  He  speak  again.  Great 
preachers  live  on  the  Bible.  Their  supreme  delight 
is  giving  the  Bible  to  the  people.  Essayists,  lec- 
turers, and  clerical  adventurers  of  divers  types  may 
make  a  stir  for  a  season  in  the  Christian  pulpit,  but  the 
ages  are  not  deceived.  The  church,  on  looking  back- 
ward and  counting  up  her  pulpit  princes,  admits  no 
one  to  the  shining  company  of  the  immortals  save 
those  alone  who  have  been  mighty  in  the  Scriptures. 


148  BUILDING  MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

The  work  begun  and  developed  by  Bible  reading, 
praise,  and  prayer  is  carried  on  and  perfected  by  the 
sermon.  The  church  of  Jesus  must  be  reverent, 
grateful,  sympathetic,  hospitable,  jubilant,  and  lov- 
ing; and  to  make  it  this  is  the  preacher's  occupation. 
In  the  growing  of  moods,  we  do  well  to  remember 
that  nothing  in  God's  universe  takes  place  by  chance. 
The  preacher,  Hke  the  farmer,  works  under  a  God 
of  law,  and  the  same  obedience  and  industry  which 
bring  forth  corn  and  potatoes  will  no  less  certainly 
secure  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit.  The  flowers  of  para- 
dise like  all  other  flowers  are  within  the  reach  of  all 
who  are  wilHng  to  expend  the  necessary  labor. 
Heavenly  plants,  as  well  as  plants  of  the  earth,  must 
be  watered  and  cultivated.  If  a  church  is  not 
beautiful  and  fragrant  it  is  largely  because  the 
spiritual  gardeners  have  been  ignorant  or  lazy.  It  is 
for  them  to  create  the  climatic  conditions  imder 
which  celestial  seeds  come  to  blossom  and  fruitage. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  word  of  the  preacher 
should  year  after  year  return  to  him  void. 

Moods,  then,  are  the  preacher's  first  concern. 
His  earliest  work  is  to  bring  his  people  into  a  Chris- 
tian frame  of  mind.  What  men  are  wiUing  to  believe 
depends  largely  upon  their  mental  mood.  A 
preacher  forgets  this  at  his  peril.    Let  him  beware 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  1 49 

how  he  tries  to  introduce  new  interpretations  and 
doctrines  into  a  church  whose  mind  is  inhospitable. 
Some  churches  are  in  a  shell.  The  new  preacher 
sees  this  at  a  glance.  He  proceeds  forthwith  to  drive 
into  it  a  series  of  logical  and  pointed  discourses  on 
the  particular  doctrine  upon  which  the  church  in  his 
judgment  needs  enlightenment,  whereas  he  ought 
first  by  the  patient  exposition  of  old  truths  in  which 
every  one  believes  create  an  atmosphere  under  whose 
genial  influence  the  shell  will  open  of  itself.  Men 
cannot  be  driven  into  believing  things  by  argu- 
mentative sermons,  but  are  made  hospitable  to  new 
truths  by  the  gradual  transforming  of  their  minds. 
It  is  not  by  mental  force  or  brilliant  argument  that 
inadequate  or  erroneous  conceptions  are  gotten  rid 
of,  but  by  elevating  the  whole  plane  of  thinking 
and  raising  the  temperature  of  the  Hfe  of  the  heart. 
A  church  will  beHeve  what  it  ought  to  believe  only 
when  it  is  in  the  right  mood. 

If  the  preacher  desires  to  create  a  sympathetic 
and  social  temper,  he  will  pay  attention  to  his 
vocabulary.  He  will  eschew  so  far  as  possible 
all  technical  and  abstract  words.  Words  which 
are  cold  and  unfamiHar  will  be  promptly  banished 
and  only  those  retained  which  the  heart  knows. 
Words  used  by  specialists  and  words  born  in  dis- 


150  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

tant  lands  will  give  place  to  the  native  words  which 
are  used  in  street  and  school  and  home.  To  come 
close  to  men  the  preacher  must  speak  to  them 
in  the  language  in  which  they  were  born.  It  is  the 
words  of  the  mother  tongue  which  find  the  blood. 
There  is  a  necromancy  in  language  and  a  preacher 
ought  to  understand  and  use  its  magic.  Words 
in  themselves  are  powers  and  have  strange  potencies 
to  awaken  desires,  quicken  impulses,  create  ambi- 
tions, give  shape  to  ideals  and  direction  to  feelings, 
and  kindle  all  those  subtle  flames  which  burn  upon 
the  soul's  central  altars.  Some  preachers  use  a 
vocabulary  cold  enough  to  form  icicles.  Their  ser- 
mons sound  like  pages  torn  from  an  almanac,  or  a 
text-book,  or  a  volume  of  statistics.  They  are  not 
acquainted  with  the  words  which  poets  use  nor 
can  they  speak  the  syllables  which  start  and  feed  a 
fire.  Words  have  moods  as  people  do,  and  the 
preacher  must  be  master  of  the  words  which  carry  in 
their  hearts  the  dispositions  which  he  desires  to  com- 
municate to  his  people.  There  are  reverent,  kneel- 
ing words,  warm,  tender  and  affectionate  words, 
open-handed,  open-hearted,  hospitable  words,  laugh- 
ing, shouting,  hallelujah  words  —  words  which  are  so 
rich  in  human  experience,  so  saturated  with  laughter 
and  tears,  that  if  the  preacher  breaks  them  upon  his 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  151 

congregation  they  fill  with  perfume,  like  precious 
alabaster  boxes,  all  the  place  where  he  is  preaching. 
Even  more  careful  will  he  be  of  his  themes.  He 
will  never  remain  away  long  from  the  great  subjects. 
If  men  are  to  feel  deeply  and  enlarge  the  organs  of  emo- 
tion, they  must  have  something  great  to  think  about. 
Exhortations  to  enthusiasm  and  other  emotions  are 
sounding  brass.  Feelings  come,  not  by  the  cudgel- 
ing of  the  will,  but  by  the  contemplation  of  facts  and 
truths  which  pierce  and  expand  the  heart.  Mighty 
moods  are  created  only  by  majestic  visions.  Let  the 
preacher,  therefore,  avoid  thin  issues,  petty  questions, 
trifling  topics,  and  devote  himself  to  the  sovereign 
features  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ,  and  to 
those  imperial  interests  which  concern  the  universal 
heart.  He  will  not  make  his  sermons  chambers  of 
horrors,  dealing  constantly  with  the  world's  outrages 
and  scandals,  but  he  will  on  the  Lord's  day  unveil 
the  face  of  the  One  who  is  the  fairest  of  ten  thou- 
sand, the  One  altogether  lovely.  The  mind  that  was 
in  Jesus  is  the  mind  which  the  preacher  is  to  build  up 
in  his  people,  and  it  is  by  looking  again  and  again  at 
the  Man  of  men  that  the  soul  passes  from  glory  to 
glory,  being  changed  into  his  own  image.  To  pro- 
duce the  Christian  mood  there  is  no  method  equal 
to  that  of  Paul,  preaching  Jesus  and  him  crucified. 


152  BUILDING   MOODS  AND   TEMPERS 

But  fully  as  important  as  his  theme  is  the  spirit 
and  manner  of  the  preacher.  Moods  are  conta- 
gious. ''Like  priest,  like  people."  There  are  narrow 
and  crabbed  congregations  made  such  by  a  big- 
oted and  surly  curmudgeon  in  the  pulpit.  Some 
churches  are  hard  and  intolerant  because  of  the  pig- 
headed dogmatism  of  the  preacher.  Parishes  are 
sometimes  cynical  and  misanthropic  because  a 
clerical  Thersites  stands  at  the  centre.  There  are 
congregations  which  are  irreverent  and  simpering 
because  of  the  jaunty  worldHng  who  officiates  in  holy 
things.  Many  a  church  is  glum  and  discouraged 
because  its  pastor  is  lachrymose  and  drooping.  As 
soon  as  a  preacher  finds  himself  pitching  all  his 
sermons  in  a  minor  key,  he  ought  to  resign  or  be 
granted  a  vacation.  Preachers  are  ordained  to  build 
up  in  men  the  mood  of  faith,  not  of  doubt;  of  hope, 
'  not  of  despair;  of  love,  not  of  denunciation  and 
fault-finding.  Toy  is  one  of  the  surest  evidences  of 
the  presence  of  the  Lord.  A  dejected  or  despondent 
church  has  lost  the  note  which  made  the  apostolic 
church  invincible.  The  Christian  pulpit  lies  in 
the  gleam  of  a  triumphant  spirit.  In  all  true  Chris- 
tian preaching  the  trumpets  are  sounding  all  the 
way.  The  cross  is  evermore  in  sight,  and  so  also  is 
he  who  said  and  says :   ''Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have 


BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS  1 53 

overcome."  The  preacher  must,  by  word  and  life, 
teach  his  church  the  art  of  always  rejoicing.  We 
live  in  a  world  of  gigantic  wrongs  and  heart-rending 
tragedies.  The  fires  of  hell  are  burning  at  our 
doors.  Strong  men  will  sometimes  flame  and 
thunder,  and  weak  men  will  often  sob  and  whimper; 
but  Christian  preachers  are  sent  from  God,  not  sim- 
ply to  hurl  thunderbolts  at  the  world's  demons  and 
dragons,  or  to  paint  with  lurid  rhetoric  society's 
cancers  and  abominations,  but  rather  to  inspire  the 
heart  with  sentiments  which  will  by  and  by  put  an 
end  to  ancient  slaveries  and  create  a  soul  under  the 
ribs  of  death. 

It  is  not  for  every  preacher  to  be  pastor  of  a  large 
church,  but  every  preacher  may  covet  the  joy  of 
shepherding  a  church  beautiful.  If  men  judge  a 
church  by  the  size  of  its  membership,  God  judges  it, 
we  may  be  certain,  by  the  height  of  its  ideals,  the 
range  of  its  sympathies,  the  reach  of  its  aspirations, 
the  depth  of  its  convictions,  the  fineness  of  its  temper, 
the  graciousness  of  its  disposition,  and  the  wealth  of 
those  graces  which  he  saw  in  his  well-beloved  Son. 
When  you  find  you  cannot  increase  the  size  of  your 
church,  go  to  work  with  fresh  energy  to  increase  the 
dimensions  of  its  soul.  QuaUty  of  Hfe,  and  not 
quantity.  Is  what  counts  most  in  working  out  God's 


154  BUILDING   MOODS   AND   TEMPERS 

plans.  The  church  of  Christ  must  first  of  all  be  beau- 
tiful. She  represents  the  wooing,  winsome  Jesus, 
and  she  conquers  only  by  her  grace.  Her  mind  must 
be  sympathetic,  her  spirit  gracious,  her  touch  gentle, 
her  face  radiant,  and  her  temper  sweet.  She  must 
be  disciplined  to  walk  in  the  ways  the  Master  loves. 
She  must  have  his  simplicity  and  tranquillity,  his 
poise  and  indescribable  charm.  She  subdues,  not 
by  driving,  but  by  the  irresistible  fascination  of  her 
loveliness.  It  is  by  transforming,  with  God's  help, 
the  mood  of  the  church  that  we  preachers  are  to 
change  the  face  of  the  world.  The  church  is  a  me- 
dium of  revelation,  and  it  is  only  when  it  incarnates 
the  disposition  of  Jesus,  that  the  nations  will  behold 
in  it  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God. 


LECTURE  V 
BUILDING  THRONES 


BUILDING  THRONES 

In  the  world's  speech,  "throne"  is  the  symbol  of    v^ 
power.    By  the  building  of  thrones  is  meant  in  thi^ 
lecture  the  generation  and  development  of  morally 
forces,  the  creation  and  organizing  of  spiritual  po-  / 
tencies.    The  New  Testament  pictures  the  Founder 
of  the  Christian  religion  as  a  man  of  might.    He  is  a 
miracle  worker  and  a  fountain  of  new  forces.  Streams 
of  energy  flow  from  him.    Nature  and  humanity 
are  alike  responsive  to  his  touch.    People  stand 
astounded  at  the  things  which  he  does.    Wherever 
he  goes  he  stirs  the  crowds  mightily,  and  men  con- 
fess that  they  have  never  seen  it  after  that  fashion. 
He  places  himself  upon  a  throne,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  leave  him   there.    All   authority  is 
given  unto  him.      He  is  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords. 

''Ye  shall  sit  on  thrones,"  so  he  said  to  the  men  v/ 
who  were  nearest  to  him,  and  when  he  sent  them  out 
he  gave  them  power  to  tread  upon  things  that  hurt. 
His  parting  promise  to  them  was  a  fresh  baptism  of 
strength.     ''Ye  shall  receive  power"  —  so  he  said 

157 


158  BUILDING   THRONES 

as  the  cloud  covered  him.  What  he  said  to  the 
Twelve  he  says  to  all.  The  cHmax  of  his  promises 
to  the  churches  is,  ^'He  that  overcome th  will  I  give 
to  him  to  sit  down  with  me  in  my  throne." 

The  preacher,  then,  is  a  servant  of  a  King,  and  his 
message  is  a  form  of  power.  Such  was  the  concep- 
tion of  the  first  great  preacher.  ''  I  am  not  ashamed 
of  the  gospel,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation to  every  one  who  believes."  The  man 
who  carries  the  message  thus  becomes  a  man  of 
power.  An  impotent  preacher  is  no  preacher  at  all. 
Preachers  are  to  be  ranked  by  what  they  accom- 
plish. They  are  not  to  be  measured  by  their  learn- 
ing, or  language,  or  elocution,  or  reputation,  but  by 
what  they  achieve.  Only  he  is  a  great  preacher  who 
brings  great  things  to  pass.  Sermons  are  nothing  un- 
less they  are  social  forces.  If  they  do  not  work,  they 
are  clanging  cymbals.  It  is  expected  of  a  minister 
that  he  shall  be  influential,  that  an  energy  shall  flow 
from  him  into  the  Uves  of  men. 

Since  every  man  has  immediate  access  to  the  heart 
of  God,  and  is  privileged  to  share  in  the  divine  grace, 
every  regenerated  soul  becomes  a  centre  from  which 
celestial  energy  is  radiated.  On  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost there  was  a  light  on  every  forehead,  a  song  in 
every  heart.     All  were  participators  in  the  overmas- 


BUILDING   THRONES  I^' 

tering  power  from  heaven.  Under  the  new  dispensa- 
tion every  believer  sits  on  a  throne,  and  influences 
go  out  from  him  over  a  kingdom  whose  boundaries 
are  known  only  to  the  Lord.  The  faith  was  de- 
livered to  the  saints,  and  so  also  were  the  keys.  The 
power  of  binding  and  loosing  does  not  belong  to 
clergymen  alone,  but  is  in  the  hands  of  the  society 
of  believers.  Ideally,  every  Christian  is  a  prophet, 
a  priest,  and  a  king.  In  Christ,  God  calls  us  one  and 
all  to  sit  enthroned. 

The  church,  then,  is  a  form  of  power,  a  huge  com- 
plex of  blended  energies,  created  for  the  purpose  of 
working  upon  the  world's  thought  and  conduct.  The 
church  universal  is  the  one  supreme  world  power  for 
moulding  ideals  and  re-creating  dispositions.  To 
make  it  increasingly  regnant  in  society's  business 
and  bosom  is  the  work  to  which  preachers  are  called. 

All  this  is  written  large  across  the  pages  of  the 
Scriptures.  Abraham  believed  that  through  him 
all  the  families  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed. 
Isaiah  saw  a  Hght  going  forth  from  Jerusalem  illu- 
mining the  isles  of  the  sea.  The  church  does  not 
exist  for  itself.  It  is  a  steward  of  the  divine  bounty. 
Its  treasures  are  all  held  in  trust.  It  is  elected,  not 
for  the  enjoyment  of  favors,  but  for  service.  It  lives 
and    labors    for   humanity.     ''For    their    sakes,    I 


l6o  BUILDING  THRONES 

sanctify  myself,"  these  are  the  Master's  words,  and 
the  church,  when  true  to  him,  makes  them  her 
own.  The  road  to  greatness  lies  through  service, 
and  the  true  church  is  the  church  which  says,  ^'  I  am 
among  you  as  one  who  serves."  When  Jesus  sent 
out  the  Twelve,  they  were  given  power  to  heal  as 
well  as  to  preach,  to  cast  out  demons  as  well  as  to 
teach.  His  favorite  figures  all  carry  in  them  this 
idea  of  going  forth  with  power  to  serve.  ''Ye  are 
the  light  of  the  world."  Light  does  not  exist  for 
itself,  but  for  the  eyes  of  those  who  sit  in  darkness. 
"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth."  Salt  does  not  exist 
for  itself,  but  for  that  which  it  saves  from  putrefac- 
tion. ''Ye  are  the  leaven."  Leaven  does  not  exist 
for  itself,  but  for  the  bread  which  it  renders  palatable 
and  nutritious.  Light  and  salt  and  yeast  are  en- 
thusiastic and  indefatigable  workers.  "Gkd!"  was 
Jesus'  constant  exhortation,  and  round  his  youthful 
church  he  wrapped  on  the  day  of  his  ascension  this 
great  commission — "Go,  disciple  the  nations!"/ 
The  church,  as  Jesus  saw  it,  was  not  a  Noah's  ark 
in  which  a  favored  few  were  to  be  carried  through 
the  flood,  but  rather  a  brotherhood  of  workers, 
pledged  to  God  and  to  one  another  for  the  cleansing 
of  society  and  the  getting  of  Heaven's  will  done  upon 
this  earth.    If  the:  church  hides  its  life  under  an 


BUILDING   TEKONES  l6l 

ecclesiastical  bushel,  the  members  of  the  world's 
household  will  remain  in  darkness.  If  the  church  is 
not  useful,  it  is  like  salt  which  has  lost  its  savor, 
good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  under  foot  of  men. 
If  it  does  not  make  itself  felt  in  the  community,  it 
fails  to  represent  the  living,  mighty  God.  If  it 
does  not  lay  down  its  life  daily  for  the  good  of  men, 
it  does  not  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  its  Lord.  It  is 
true  to  its  Founder  only  when  it  is  a  society  of 
saviours,  an  instrument  of  social  redemption,  an  angel 
troubling  the  waters  of  the  pool  in  which  humanity 
is  to  be  healed.  Its  work  lies  in  Jerusalem,  and  also 
in  Judea,  and  also  in  Samaria,  and  also  in  the  na- 
tions which  lie  in  the  darkness  on  the  outer  edge  of 
the  world.     It  is  a  planetary  power. 

The  New  Testament  church  is  a  working,  self-sacri- 
ficing, conquering  society  of  brothers;  and  this  is  the 
church  which  the  world  to-day  is  calling  for  with 
a  passionate  insistence  which  cannot  go  imheeded. 
The  ages  in  which  the  church  stood  dreamy  and  idle, 
waiting  for  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  have  gone, 
never  to  return.  The  idea  of  the  church  as  a  city  of 
refuge,  into  which  sinners  may  flee  for  the  saving 
of  their  souls,  is  no  longer  tenable  among  thoughtful 
men.  "Come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye 
separate,"  can  no  longer  receive  the  monastic  inter- 

M 


1 62  BUILDING  THRONES 

pretation.  Individual  redemption  is  the  starting- 
point,  but  world  redemption  is  the  goal.  Religion  is 
more  than  a  personal  possession  of  security  and  peace 
and  joy,  it  is  a  service,  a  sacrifice,  a  gift  to  others. 
Men  are  praying  '^Thy  kingdom  come"  with  a 
new  passion.  Religion  is  now  seen  to  concern  this 
world  no  less  than  the  world  which  is  to  come.  The 
good  tilings  which  have  been  promised  are  not  all  to 
be  waited  for  until  we  put  on  immortality.  We  have 
a  right  to  hope,  not  simply  for  the  rescue  of  a  few  of 
the  ship's  passengers,  but  for  the  saving  of  the  entire 
ship.  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  not  hopelessly 
in  the  hands  of  the  devil,  but  will  become,  when 
Christian  consecration  and  sacrifice  have  done  their 
work,  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ. 
This  transfer  of  emphasis  from  the  other  world  to 
this  is  one  of  the  mightiest  of  all  the  changes  which 
have  been  wrought  in  Christian  thinking  within  the 
last  hundred  years,  and  it  brings  to  the  front  for 
fresh  discussion  the  question,  What  is  the  mission  of 
the  church  ?  Men  are  asking  to-day  with  irritating 
intensity  and  repetitiousness :  ''What  is  the  church 
doing  ?  What  mighty  works  does  she  perform  to- 
day ?  What  evil  spirits  is  she  casting  out  ?  What 
diseases  of  society  is  she  healing?  Where  are  the 
serpents  and  the  scorpions  which  she  is  crushing  ? " 


BUILDING   THRONES  163 

The  old-time  stress  on  creeds  has  been  shifted.    The 
first  question  now  is  not,  What  do  you  believe? 
but,  What  are  you  doing  to  make  a  better  world  ? 
The  old  inquiries  as  to  emotional  experiences  have 
been  superseded  by  queries  in  regard  to  good  works. 
The  one  parable  of  Jesus  with  which  the  twentieth 
century  is  most  familiar  is  the  parable  of  the  good 
Samaritan,  and  the  words  of  the  New  Testament 
which  can  be  seen  the  farthest,  and  which  are  read 
by  the  largest  number  of  living  men,  are  the  closing 
words  of    that  same   parable— ''Go  and  do  thou 
likewise."     It   is   a   humanitarian    age.     The  only    ■'-'"*'' 
religion  which  appeals  to  thousands  is  a  religion     '  \  j^ 
which  exalts  and  glorifies  service.     You  may  quarrel  ,       .  aa 
with  this  mood  if  you  will,  and  say  that  it  is  running     •    -^ 
to  extremes,  but  you  are  not  likely  to  suppress  it. 
A  new  spirit  is  abroad  and  its  voice  is  heard  through- 
out the  world.     Men  are  laying  an  emphasis  on  so- 
cial problems  and  the  social  applications  of  religion, 
which  is  quite  unique  in  Christian  history.    No  doubt 
this  is  the  Lord's  doing,  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times 
which  only  blind  men  will  fail  to  note  and  ponder. 
It  is  always  well  to  meet  men  where  they  are,  for  it  is 
only  as  we  are  willing  to  meet  them  there,  that  we 
have  any  chance  of  leading  them  where  we  think 
they  ought  to  be.     If  you  take  scant  interest  in  the 


164  BUILDING  THRONES 

practical  aspects  of  religion,  and  show  ignorance  of 
the  social  and  industrial  movements  of  your  time,  you 
will  alienate  many  of  the  noblest  spirits  in  your  con- 
gregation. If  you  do  not  give  your  people  tasks  to 
do,  and  lead  them  into  spacious  fields  of  practical 
endeavor,  you  must  not  be  surprised  when  they 
wander  of!  by  twos  and  threes,  as  they  surely  will, 
and  attach  themselves  to  congregations  which  are 
doers  of  the  word  and  not  hearers  only.  We  live  in 
the  midst  of  a  restless,  energetic  people,  a  people  not 
over  fond  of  definitions  and  abstract  thought,  and  the 
only  way  to  escape  disaster  is  to  cut  generous  chan- 
nels through  which  this  tumultuous  energy  can  flow. 
The  generation  of  moral  power  and  the  application 
of  it,  this  is  the  fascinating  problem  to  which  the 
preacher  will  again  and  again  return. 

It  is  the  complaint  of  many  ministers  that  their 
people  will  not  work,  but  the  fault  does  not  always 
lie  with  the  people.  It  may  be  that  the  minister 
does  not  know  how  so  to  strike  the  rock  of  the  human 
heart  as  to  cause  the  streams  of  force  to  flow  without 
which  effective  action  is  impossible.  The  hearts  of 
men  must  be  cultivated  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of 
the  heart  are  the  moving  forces  of  the  world.  Con- 
science is  a  power,  and  so  are  sympathy,  affection, 
good-will,  enthusiasm,  loyalty,  devotion,  aspiration; 


BXnLDING   THRONES  1 6$ 

and  the  preacher  must  preach  in  such  a  way  as  to  in- 
crease the  stock  of  each  and  all  of  these.  He  ought 
to  ask  himself  unceasingly:  ''  How  can  I  give  a  new 
edge  to  conscience  and  a  new  height  to  aspiration  ? 
How  can  I  arouse  the  social  sympathies  and  senti- 
ments? How  can  I  create  the  moral  enthusiasm 
and  spiritual  passion  without  which  society  must 
degenerate  and  shrivel?  How  can  I  increase  the 
capacity  of  the  church  dynamo  for  creating  the 
moral  forces  by  which  all  the  wheels  of  philanthropy 
and  social  betterment  throughout  the  town  shall 
be  kept  turning  ?  How  can  I  replenish  the  spiritual 
forces  of  humanity,  that  the  material  development 
of  the  community  may  not  outstrip  its  moral 
growth  ?''  The  man  who  faces  questions  such  as 
these  will  not  preach  narrow  or  stupefying  sermons. 
He  will  cultivate  in  his  people  the  habit  of  looking 
outward.  He  will  cut  windows  in  his  discourses 
opening  out  upon  the  pubHc  square.  He  will  keep 
the  church  doors  ajar,  and  preach  a  gospel  which  car- 
ries the  world's  horizon  in  its  eye.  It  is  when  the 
preacher  has  no  vision  that  the  people  become  slug- 
gish and  perish. 

There  are  preachers  who  do  not  know  how  to  use 
their  people  even  after  they  are  aroused.  They  do 
everything  themselves.     Soon  or  late  they  become 


1 66  BUILDING   THRONES 

jaded  and  discouraged  and  begin  to  say  damnatory 
things  about  the  selfishness  and  laziness  of  church 
members.  In  many  cases  the  discouragement  is 
due  to  the  preacher's  own  ignorance  and  folly. 
He  made  himself  the  one  and  only  parish  dynamo. 
He  did  not  roll  the  burden  of  parochial  work  upon 
the  shoulders  which  God  had  provided  to  receive  it. 
He  allowed  his  people  to  think  of  themselves  as  a 
select  society  to  be  ministered  unto,  when  it  was  his 
business  to  train  them  to  minister  and  to  give  their 
lives  a  ransom  for  others.  A  minister  should  use 
his  people.  He  need  not  carry  them.  They  are 
able  to  walk.  The  farther  they  walk  the  better. 
He  need  not  do  their  work.  The  more  they  work 
the  more  do  they  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  Jesus  Christ  their  Saviour.  To  do  their 
work  for  them  is  to  blast  their  spiritual  develop- 
ment and  lay  upon  their  substitute  a  burden  too 
great  for  flesh  and  blood  to  bear.  Even  Moses 
tottered  under  so  heavy  a  load.  "  I  am  not  able  to 
bear  all  this  people  alone,  because  it  is  too  heavy 
for  me.  Kill  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  hand,  and  let 
me  not  see  my  wretchedness."  And  the  reply  of  the 
Almighty  was,  ''  Gather  unto  me  seventy  men  of  the 
elders  of  Israel  and  I  will  take  of  the  spirit  which 
is  upon  thee  and  will  put  it  upon  them ;  and  they 


BUILDING   THRONES  1 67 

shall  bear  the  burden  of  the  people  with  thee,  that 
thou  bear  it  not  thyself  alone."  This  was  the 
method  of  Jesus.  He  did  not  attempt  to  redeem 
Palestine  imassisted.  He  rolled  the  great  enter- 
prise upon  twelve  men,  and  then  upon  seventy, 
and  then  upon  one  hundred  and  twenty.  The 
apostles  would  not  allow  themselves  to  be  crushed 
by  getting  under  all  the  work  which  the  church  found 
to  do.  They  called  out  the  resources  of  men  whom 
God  had  raised  up  for  their  assistance.  If  it  be 
true  that  the  spirit  of  God  has  come  upon  all  classes, 
the  old  and  the  young,  the  women  as  well  as  the  men, 
why  should  the  minister  not  make  use  of  his  entire 
church  membership  in  getting  done  the  things  which 
ought  to  be  accompHshed  ? 

There  are  ministers  who  do  not  know  how  to 
organize  their  people,  and  then  censure  them  for 
working  ineffectively.  To  build  the  principle  of  co- 
operation into  the  Hfe  of  the  church  is  to  augment 
its  power  enormously.  Capitalists  have  learned 
how  to  organize  money,  and  it  is  by  consoHdated  gold 
that  they  are  working  their  miracles.  Industry  has 
mastered  the  art  of  combination,  and  a  new  era  has 
dawned  for  labor.  It  is  for  ministers  to  organize 
character,  to  marshal  conscience,  to  coordinate  and 
link  together  moral  forces  in  such  ways  as  to  hasten 


1 68  BUILDING   THRONES 

the  coming  of  the  golden  age.  If  one  can  chase  a 
thousand,  and  two  can  put  ten  thousand  to  flight, 
what  may  be  expected  when  a  hundred  or  five  hun- 
dred Christians  are  amalgamated  into  a  compact 
body,  inflamed  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  led  by  a 
man  who  knows  how  to  blow  from  a  bugle  a  blast 
which  is  not  uncertain  ? 

It  is  only  by  patient  drilling  that  armies  are 
prepared  for  battle,  and  it  is  only  by  long-continued 
training  that  Christians  are  fitted  for  effective 
service.  Telling  church  members  that  they  ought  to 
work  is  not  enough.  Some  preachers  have  a  gift  for 
exhortation,  and  after  that  there  is  no  more  which 
they  can  do.  They  exalt  the  glory  of  performance 
and  urge  the  necessity  of  laboring  for  God,  but  they 
never  point  out  the  specific  tasks  which  it  is  possible 
for  their  people  to  work  at.  Or  if  they  name  the 
task  which  is  to  be  attempted,  they  do  not  designate 
the  successive  steps  which  must  be  taken  in  order  to 
reach  the  goal.  Laymen  need  leadership  in  the  realm 
of  Christian  effort,  no  less  than  in  the  region  of  Chris- 
tian thought.  It  is  as  easy  to  overestimate  men's 
knowledge  of  how  to  work  as  it  is  to  underestimate 
their  willingness  and  ability  to  work  if  only  properly 
instructed.  A  large  proportion  of  church  members 
are  novices  in  Christian  service,  and  must  be  led 


BUILDING  THRONES  1 69 

on  from  point  to  point,  like  children  in  a  kindergar- 
ten, with  infinite  patience  and  particularity  of 
instruction.  Work  must  be  broken  into  bits,  and 
the  bits  distributed  to  groups  and  individuals, 
with  detailed  suggestions  as  to  the  best  way  of  doing 
it.  Working  for  the  redemption  of  a  community 
is  a  fine  art,  and  all  of  us  are  bunglers  at  first,  gaining 
proficiency  only  after  many  pains  and  botchings. 
The  gift  of  encouragement  is  more  valuable  than  the 
gift  of  exhortation,  and  the  pastor  who  encourages 
his  people  to  take  hold  of  certain  definite  tasks, 
and  heartens  them  step  by  step  as  they  proceed 
along  the  way,  will  bring  to  pass  achievements  for- 
ever beyond  the  vehement  exhorter  who  is  everlast- 
ingly expatiating  on  the  heavenly  loveHness  of 
service,  but  who  never  takes  the  trouble  to  tell  his 
people  in  unambiguous  English  what  they  ought 
to  do. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  not  a  few  ministers 
fail  because  of  their  inherent  and  ineradicable 
selfishness.  They  work  for  the  building  of  their  own 
throne,  and  give  little  thought  to  the  thrones  of  their 
brethren.  Their  ambition,  perhaps,  is  to  make  their 
pulpit  a  throne,  and  they  count  themselves  the  only 
preacher,  forgetting  that  there  ought  to  be  in  every 
parish  as  many  heralds  of  the  cross  as  there  are 


1 70  BUILDING   THRONES 

Christians,  and  that  it  is  only  when  the  entire  church 
is  at  work  preaching  that  the  whole  parish  can  be 
reached.  It  may  be  their  ambition  to  be  model 
pastors,  and  they  devote  themselves  to  the  building 
of  lofty  pastoral  thrones,  forgetting  that  there  ought 
to  be  in  their  churches  as  many  pastors  as  there  are 
members.  To  every  Christian  is  given  the  responsi- 
bility of  shepherding  souls.  The  pastor  is  a  shep- 
herd of  shepherds.  Because  the  minister  alone 
officiates  at  the  Lord's  Table,  he  may  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  every  Christian  is  a  priest,  and  is  anointed 
to  be  a  mediator  between  God  and  men.  It  is  easy 
for  a  minister  to  be  selfish  without  realizing  how 
selfish  he  is.  He  may  insist  on  doing  everything 
himself,  because  he  is  unwilling  to  submit  to  the 
drudgery  of  training  others.  He  may  prefer  to  do 
all  the  speaking  at  every  meeting  because  he  has  not 
the  patience  to  develop  in  others  the  gift  of  speech. 
A  man  of  this  type  gradually  gathers  up  everything 
into  his  own  hands,  his  people  degenerating  into 
auditors  and  spectators.  But  his  sin  finds  him  out. 
By  failing  to  develop  the  resources  of  his  people, 
he  curtails  the  sphere  of  his  influence.  The  man 
who  builds  masterful  workers  multiplies  himself 
manyfold.  A  preacher  is  never  so  surely  adding 
cubits  to  the  height  of  his  own  throne  as  when  he  is 


BUILDING   THRONES  171 

building  thrones  for  his  brethren.  It  is  by  surround- 
ing his  throne  by  other  thrones  that  he  comes  into 
the  fulness  of  the  power  which  has  been  promised. 

How,  then,  shall  the  minister  go  to  work  in  the 
construction  of  thrones  ?  He  must  first  of  all  be- 
lieve in  human  nature.  He  must  have  faith  in  the 
capacity  of  the  average  man.  God  alone  knows  the 
soul  and  the  extent  of  its  undiscovered  resources. 
The  preacher  who  builds  his  hopes  on  brilliant 
people  only  is  doomed  to  disappointment.  The 
five-taltnted  men  and  women  are  few  in  number, 
and  even  when  they  use  their  talents,  they  are  in- 
adequate to  the  situation.  The  preacher  who  would 
make  his  church  a  power  must  begin  by  trusting 
common  people.  The  man  with  two  talents  must 
be  cultivated,  and  the  man  with  one  talent  must 
not  be  neglected.  Stupid  people  are  bright  people 
not  yet  awakened.  Mediocre  folk  are  geniuses 
whose  hour  has  not  yet  come.  You  never  know 
how  many  talents  a  man  has  from  what  he  says  or 
from  what  he  is  able  to  exhibit.  One  of  the  constant 
surprises  in  this  world  is  the  way  in  which  the  people 
from  whom  we  had  expected  little  surpass  those 
from  whom  we  had  expected  much.  The  pigmies 
are  always  springing  into  giants,  the  dull  pupils  are 
constantly    passing    the    best    examinations,    the 


172  BUILDING   THRONES 

sluggards  are  continually  shaking  off  their  lethargy 
and  performing  the  labors  of  Hercules.  It  is  the  old 
story,  the  tortoise  arrives  before  the  hare.  The 
race  is  not  always  to  the  man  you  call  swift,  and  the 
battle  is  not  always  to  the  man  you  think  strong. 
God  seems  to  take  delight  in  surprising  us  by  choos- 
ing "  the  f ooHsh  things  of  the  world  to  shame  them 
that  are  wise,  and  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to 
put  to  shame  the  things  that  are  strong,  and  the 
base  things  of  the  world,  and  the  things  that  are 
despised,  yea  and  the  things  that  are  not  to  bring 
to  nought  the  things  that  are."  To  unlock  the  vital 
energies  of  immortal  souls  and  set  them  working  in 
our  human  world  is  a  work  fit  for  a  god.  Many  a 
preacher  fails  because  he  underestimates  the  possi- 
bilities of  his  people.  All  of  them  are  created  in 
God's  image.  All  of  them  are  heirs  of  immortality. 
All  of  them  are  bought  by  the  blood  of  Jesus.  They 
are  now  sons  of  God  and  it  does  not  yet  appear  what 
they  shall  be  even  this  side  of  death.  We  only 
know  that  they  can  pass  from  glory  to  glory, 
gaining  more  and  more  of  the  power  of  the  Lord. 
Some  ministers  can  use  old  people,  but  not  young 
people.  They  are  suspicious  of  their  young  people, 
and  quarrel  with  them.  Others  can  cooperate  with 
men,  but  not  with  women.    They  disparage  feminine 


BXnLDING   THRONES  1 73 

endowments  and  lack  ability  to  make  use  of  them. 
Others  can  utilize  the  educated,  but  not  the  un- 
lettered, the  rich  but  not  the  poor,  or  vice  versa;  but 
the  successful  preacher  draws  boldly  on  the  resources 
of  all.  He  puts  to  use  the  vigor  and  hopefulness 
of  the  young,  the  retrospection  and  wisdom  of  the 
old,  the  virility  of  men  and  the  tenderness  of 
women,  the  vivacity  of  youth  and  the  innocence 
of  children,  for  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and 
suckHngs  God  still  perfects  praise.  He  renders 
useful  the  rich  and  the  cultured,  and  also  the 
servants  and  all  who  hew  wood  and  draw  water, 
remembering  that  the  spirit  of  God  has  come  upon 
all  flesh,  and  that  every  human  being  is  a  shekinah. 
Show  your  faith  in  human  nature  by  expecting  the 
largest  things  of  your  people.  Give  them  abundant 
and  taxing  work  to  do.  A  church  that  is  not  kept 
busy  is  certain  to  become  fastidious,  and  a  church 
given  to  criticising  is  a  church  that  encumbers  the 
ground.  There  is  nothing  so  deadly  to  the  spirit 
of  faultfinding,  and  the  entire  brood  of  demons  to 
which  faultfinding  gives  birth,  as  work.  Work 
develops  what  is  best  in  us,  and  kills  what  is  worst. 
You  can  cast  out  demons  by  training  men  to  labor. 
Work  is  a  great  socializer.  It  breaks  down  barriers. 
Important   work   must   be   done   by   cooperative 


174  BXnLDING  THRONES 

effort.  Cooperation  increases  strength  and  also 
good  feeKng.  Girls  who  sew  together  for  the  poor 
sew  their  hearts  together.  Women  who  plan  and 
pray  for  missionaries  forget  their  social  differences. 
Large  tasks  call  for  the  strength  of  the  group,  and 
with  the  coming  of  Christians  into  groups  there 
descends  the  spirit  of  power.  Association  in  labor 
is  a  means  of  grace.  Morbid  moods  disappear  and 
bad  heart  habits  are  sloughed  off  in  an  atmosphere 
made  warm  by  social  intercourse.  Church  work 
accomplishes  many  things,  and  not  the  least  is  the 
bringing  of  Christians  together.  By  coming  to- 
gether they  get  nearer  to  God. 

Trust  the  people,  give  them  work,  and  then  be 
patient  with  them.  The  important  thing  is  not  that 
things  be  done  superbly,  but  that  they  be  done  in- 
creasingly well.  The  head  of  a  church  must  not  be 
fussy  and  must  have  the  love  which  suffers  long  and 
still  is  kind.  Many  of  those  who  enter  the  vine- 
yard will  sHnk  out  of  it  before  noon,  discouraged. 
Others  will  stand  idle  in  the  vineyard,  preferring  the 
shade  of  the  vineyard  to  the  sun  of  the  market-place. 
Your  first  impulse  will  be  to  castigate.  But  castiga- 
tion  is  not  a  preacher's  occupation.  He  is  an  en- 
courager.  People  need  nothing  so  much  as  courage. 
A  scolding  pastor  lessens  the  courage  even  of  the 


BTHLDING   THRONES  1 75 

brave.  The  faint-hearted  are  legion,  and  to  scorn 
them  is  a  sin.  The  blunderers  must  not  be  whipped. 
Mistakes  are  numerous  and  exasperating,  but  after 
all  a  minister  with  eyes  can  always  see  a  lot  of  solid 
strength  and  splendid  promise.  To  recognize  a 
success  is  better  than  to  call  attention  to  a  failure. 
To  blow  a  trumpet  over  a  victory  is  better  tactics 
than  to  play  a  flute  over  a  defeat.  Fix  your  eyes 
on  the  best  things.  It  is  an  encouragement  to 
preachers  that  Christ  had  such  a  fondness  for  a 
grain  of  mustard  seed.  What  wonderful  eyes  he  had 
for  seeing  the  possibilities  wrapped  up  in  diminutive 
bundles.  A  preacher  needs  the  eyes  of  Jesus,  for 
oftentimes  the  encouraging  symptoms  in  the  parish 
are  no  larger  than  mustard  seeds.  He  also  needs  the 
heart  of  Jesus.  A  bruised  reed  our  Lord  would  not 
break.  A  smoking  wick  he  would  not  extinguish. 
There  come  days  when  to  the  preacher's  eyes  there 
are  no  reeds  in  sight  except  bruised  reeds,  and  no 
wicks  except  those  that  are  smoking.  The  church 
seems  filled  with  smoke,  and  the  preacher  is  at  the 
point  of  choking.  But  a  builder,  working  under  a 
permit  granted  by  Heaven  upon  a  structure  which  is 
to  outlast  the  stars,  ought  not  to  become  discour- 
aged. He  ought  to  count  the  cost  before  he  begins. 
Erecting   thrones   requires   the  qualities  which   a 


176  BUILDING  THRONES 

builder  needs  in  the  building  of  a  palace  or  a  tower. 
It  takes  time  and  skill,  fidelity  and  patience.  It 
cannot  be  done  in  a  month  or  a  year.  It  cannot  be 
accomplished  without  thought.  It  requires  a  sweat 
of  blood.  It  is  impossible  without  something  of  the 
calm-eyed  perseverance  and  the  persistent  courage 
and  the  sober  joy  which  Jesus  had  in  the  building  of 
the  thrones  for  his  apostles.  The  working  force  of  the 
church  can  be  indefinitely  increased  by  a  minister 
who  has  mastered  the  secrets  of  the  art  of  building. 
Energies  can  be  coordinated,  influences  can  be 
mobiHzed,  power  can  be  built,  if  only  the  laws  of  God 
are  known  and  followed. 

Keep  your  church,  then,  at  the  centre  of  the  world. 
Let  the  concentric  circle,  marking  off  the  different 
zones,  lie  always  luminous  in  your  eyes :  Jerusalem, 
your  town,  Judea,  your  country,  Samaria,  those  prov- 
inces of  your  nation's  life  least  permeated  with  spirit- 
ual forces,  and  finally  the  great  non-christian  world. 
This  is  your  parish.  The  man  who  goes  into  his 
pulpit  with  these  spheres  of  influence  spread  out 
fore  him  will  not  be  hkely  to  let  his  people  go  to  sleep? 
There  will  come  into  his  utterance  the  tone  that 
Demosthenes  knew,  and  men  will  say  to  one  another, 
while  he  preaches,  "  Let  us  march  against  Philip!  " 
It  is  for  the  preacher  to  pick  up  his  congregation 


-ep^ 


BUILDING   THRONES  1 77 

and  hurl  it  upon  the  world.  The  work  of  the  preacher 
is  with  his  church,  the  work  of  the  church  is  with  the 
world.  Let  the  preacher  concentrate  himself  upon 
his  church,  and  his  church  will  take  hold  of  the  town, 
the  nation,  and  the  nations.  Ministers  who  rush 
hither  and  thither,  eaten  up  with  reformatory  zeal, 
meddling  with  this  and  dabbhng  with  that,  do  not 
begin  to  do  so  much  for  the  advancement  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  as  do  the  men  who  stay  at  home  and  pour 
out  into  the  souls  of  their  own  people  the  full  meas- 
ure of  their  vitality  and  devotion.  What  spectacle 
is  more  lamentable  than  that  of  a  minister  struggling 
by  vociferous  speech  on  miscellaneous  platforms  to 
reform  society,  when  his  own  church  is  scrawny  and 
feeble ;  striving  to  set  the  world  on  fire  when  the  little 
group  of  people  whom  God  has  intrusted  to  his  keep- 
ing are  chalky  and  limp.  The  church  is  the  preach- 
er's throne,  and  the  man  who  builds  the  most  vigor- 
ous and  puissant  church  wields  the  longest  sceptre 
and  wears  the  brightest  crown, 
^df  here  are  seven  forms  of  power  which  a  Christian 
JHiurch  should  be  possessor  of,  or  rather  there  are 
seven  kingdoms  in  which  its  influence  should  be  felt. 
V  The  church  is  first  of  all  a  worshipping  body.  She 
sings  praises  and  offers  prayers  unto  God.  She 
cultivates  the  devotional  life  and  trains  men  to  bow 


1 78  BUILDING   THRONES 

their  heads  and  hearts  before  the  King  of  heaven. 
Public  worship  is  a  force  to  be  carefully  safeguarded 
and  constantly  strengthened.  A  church  becomes  a 
more  effective  working  church  when  it  has  once 
learned  to  pray  and  sing.  Bringing  the  heart  to 
the  throne  of  grace  increases  all  its  capacities 
and  makes  it  capable  of  larger  service.  Public 
worship,  moreover,  is  the  testimony  which  the 
church  bears  to  the  community  of  its  faith  in  the 
God  who  has  revealed  himself  in  Christ.  For  this 
reason,  public  worship  should  be  fuU-toned  and  ju- 
bilant. Paul  was  always  concerned  about  the  im- 
pression which  the  church  in  her  worship  might 
make  upon  a  visiting  stranger.  All  preachers  who 
have  the  Pauline  wisdom  plan  and  labor  for  the  im- 
provement of  their  church  worship.  To  give  it  a 
richer  and  more  penetrating  tone,  to  impart  to  it  a 
higher  beauty,  to  suffuse  it  with  a  more  solemnizing 
and  subduing  spirit,  is  to  increase  the  power  of  the 
church,  not  only  over  the  lives  of  its  members,  but 
over  the  feeling  of  the  community.  Church  attend- 
ance is  not  for  Christians  an  elective.  It  is  an  es- 
sential part  of  the  confession  which  a  follower  of 
Jesus  makes  to  the  world,  a  part  of  the  work  which 
the  Master  expects  him  to  perform.  The  very  exist- 
ence of  Christianity  depends  on  social  worship,  as 


BUILDING   THRONES  179 

all  the  persecuting  Roman  emperors  well  understood. 
Could  Christians  not  come  together,  the  power  of 
the  Prince  of  Glory  would  be  broken.  ''Forsake  not 
the  assembling  of  yourselves  together,"  —  so  wrote 
a  New  Testament  writer  to  men  who  ran  the  risk 
of  losing  their  lives  by  frequenting  the  assemblies  of 
the  Nazarene.  Worship  does  a  mighty  work.  It 
melts  the  hearts  of  men  together.  They  forget  their 
differences  of  rank  and  culture  and  fortune  when 
they  repeat  the  creed  or  bow  their  heads  in  prayer. 
For  the  effacing  of  the  lines  which  separate  and  the 
obliteration  of  the  barriers  which  estrange,  there  is  an 
immeasurable  potency  in  common  prayer.  A  con- 
gregation devoutly  engaged  in  worship  is  doing  some- 
thing for  the  community  which  cannot  be  done  in  any 
other  way.  It  is  a  collective  confession  of  Christ 
which  outruns  in  influence  the  confession  of  any  one 
individual,  no  matter  how  exalted.  It  has  a  power 
which  the  mightiest  of  sermons  cannot  exert.  A 
careless  or  dwindled  congregation  retards  the  prog- 
ress of  Christianity.  A  lifeless  and  formal  worship 
shuts  the  heavens  and  makes  it  difficult  to  believe 
what  Christ  has  said.  Desultory  church  attend- 
ance is  in  Christians  a  sin.  No  Christian  can  absent 
himself  needlessly  from  public  worship  without 
damaging  the  influence  of  the  Christian  society  and 


l8o  BUILDING   THRONES 

bringing  loss  to  his  own  soul.  Such  persons  are  to 
be  accounted  disorderly.  They  have  left  their  place 
in  the  ranks.  They  have  violated  the  law  of  love. 
They  are  to  be  admonished.  The  preacher  cannot 
afford  to  allow  the  worship  in  his  church  to  become 
ragged  or  meagre.  High  standards  should  be  held 
up.  The  Lord's  army  on  the  Lord's  day  should 
present  a  soHd  front.  A  disorderly  or  decimated 
army  suggests  demoralization  and  invites  defeat. 
Public  worship  is  a  form  of  power.  It  is  one  of  the 
lights  in  the  seven-branched  candlestick. 

The  Christian  society  is  a  teaching  body.  The 
preacher  is  a  teacher.  The  church  is  a  school.  The 
name  for  his  followers  which  the  Master  loved  was 
pupils.  History  knows  him  as  the  Great  Teacher. 
The  minister  is  the  head  teacher  of  his  church,  but 
he  cannot  do  his  work  without  assistants.  What 
head  teacher  can  ?  He  must  educate  a  body  of  men 
and  women  to  whom  God  has  given  the  teaching 
gift  and  place  them  upon  thrones.  At  stated  times 
the  church  meets  for  the  study  of  the  Scriptures 
by  question  and  answer.  Such  a  session  of  the 
church  we  call  the  Bible  school.  Whatever  its  name, 
it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  school  is  not  an 
outside  institution,  or  an  appendage  to  the  church, 
but  that  it  is  the  church  itself  engaged  in  the  study 


BUILDING   THRONES  l8l 

of  the  Bible.  The  children  are  pupils  and  so  also 
are  the  parents.  The  young  are  there  and  so  also 
are  heads  which  are  hoary.  The  school  includes 
professing  Christians  and  all  others  who  are  willing 
to  be  taught.  Here  is  an  opportunity  for  the 
preacher  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  the  church's  in- 
fluence. By  caUing  into  the  work  of  Bible  teaching 
a  company  of  Christians  variously  gifted,  a  wider 
and  deeper  impression  is  made  than  could  be  pro- 
duced by  any  one  man.  The  choosing  and  training 
of  these  teachers  is  a  task  of  stupendous  importance. 
Through  the  personaHties  of  the  teachers,  the  gospel 
comes  with  a  wide  variety  of  richness  and  persuasive- 
ness, supplementing  the  instruction  of  the  pulpit 
and  reaching  recesses  in  the  community  into  which 
sermons  could  not  travel.  Boys  and  girls  who  might 
never  be  influenced  by  pulpit  discourses,  or  even  by 
the  prayers  of  their  parents,  are  often  wooed  and 
won  by  the  fidelity  and  love  of  a  teacher;  and  fathers 
and  mothers  who  had  lost  all  interest  in  organized 
Christianity  frequently  take  their  places  in  the  pew 
again,  because  their  children  are  in  the  Bible  school. 
The  preacher  who  raises  up  a  consecrated  Bible 
teacher  opens  a  new  channel  for  the  inflow  of  God's 
grace.  No  Christians  grow  so  rapidly  as  those  who 
teach  the  Bible.    It  is  the  Bible  teachers  who  become 


1 82  BUILDING   THRONES 

the  pillars  of  the  church.  In  training  teachers  for 
their  work  the  preacher  is  building  thrones.  Bible 
teaching  is  a  second  flame  in  the  golden  candlestick. 
The  church  is  an  evangelizing  body.  It  exists 
to  make  converts.  The  Master  called  men  to  him 
only  to  send  them  out.  He  sent  forth  every  one  who 
took  his  yoke  and  learned  of  him.  St.  Luke  tells 
us  that  all  the  members  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem 
went  forth  preaching  the  word.  Every  Christian 
is  a  witness.  The  purpose  of  his  witnessing  is  to 
bring  others  to  the  truth.  A  church  which  makes 
no  converts  is  a  church  which  Christ  cannot  own. 
Unless  it  adds  to  the  number  of  those  who  are  being 
saved,  its  own  life  is  forfeited.  It  is  sometimes 
I  asked  if  a  pastor  ought  to  be  an  evangeUst  ?  If  by 
1  evangelist  is  meant  a  man  whose  business  it  is  to  tell 
'  the  good  news  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  men  to 
Christ,  then  certainly  every  minister  is  called  to  do 
the  work  of  an  evangeHst.  His  pulpit  message 
should  never  lose  the  evangelistic  note.  His  words 
should  pierce  men's  hearts  and  bring  them  to  re- 
pentance. His  appeals  ought  to  prick  men's  con- 
sciences and  compel  them  to  ask  what  they  ought  to 
do.  If  a  minister  preaches  an  entire  year  to  uncon- 
verted people  without  a  conversion,  it  is  time  that 
he  withdraw  from  the  ministry  or  ask  God  to  give 


BUILDING   THRONES  1 83 

him  another  heart.  But  the  preacher  is  not  the  only- 
evangelist.  Laymen  are  baptized  to  announce  the 
good  tidings.  It  is  their  privilege  and  their  duty  to 
lead  men  into  the  kingdom'  of  God.  Church  mem- 
bers must  be  trained  to  do  evangeHstic  work.  They 
are  not  likely  to  do  it  unless  they  are  asked.  They 
cannot  do  it  well  unless  they  are  trained.  It  is  for 
the  preacher  to  gather  round  him  a  body  of  evange- 
lists and  send  them  forth  heralding  the  King.  Lay- 
men can  reach  hearts  which  are  closed  to  the  preacher. 
They  can  speak  with  an  accent  which  the  preacher 
does  not  possess.  The  minister  who  trains  a  body 
of  lay  preachers  extends  immeasurably  the  range  of 
the  church's  power.  No  one  man  has  sufficient  com- 
pass to  his  voice  to  reach  all  classes  of  people.  There 
should  be  a  varied  appeal  coming  through  the  tongues 
of  many  consecrated  beHevers.  The  church  is  an 
evangelist,  and  the  evangel  ought  to  break  into 
music  on  a  multitude  of  tongues.  Passion  for  souls 
is  a  power.  EvangeHsm  is  another  candle  in  our 
beautiful  candlestick. 

The  church  is  a  humanitarian  body,  —  a  servant  of 
the  human  race.  Jesus  was  a  lover  of  human  beings, 
irrespective  of  their  condition  or  relations,  and  his 
church  is  bound  to  show  good-will  toward  all.  There 
are  three  classes  which  must  be  ever  close  to  the 


184  BUILDING   THRONES 

church's  heart,  because  they  are  dear  to  the  heart  of 
Jesus,  —  the  sick,  the  poor,  and  the  forsaken.  Noth- 
ing so  enraged  his  soul  as  inhumanity.  He  began  his 
public  ministry  by  declaring  his  mission  to  be  preach- 
ing the  gospel  to^the  poor,  healing  the  broken-hearted, 
preaching  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering 
of  sight  to  the  bhnd,  and  setting  at  hberty  them  that 
are  bruised.  When  John  the  Baptist  sent  inquiring 
whether  he  was  indeed  the  Messiah,  the  reply  of 
Jesus  was,  ''Tell  him  I  am  doing  deeds  of  mercy.'* 
He  declared  that  the  universe  was  built  on  this 
principle,  and  that  the  only  men  who  would  be 
counted  blessed  on  the  Judgment  Day  would  be 
those  who  had  ministered  to  the  sick  and  the  poor 
and  the  forsaken.  A  preacher  is  not  fit  to  preach 
who  has  no  time  to  visit  the  sick,  to  help  the  poor, 
and  to  befriend  the  forlorn  and  neglected.  If  a 
preacher  has  not  the  spirit  o^|fcrist,  he  is  none  of 
his,  no  matter  what  he  says  in^Bgprulpit.  But  this 
work  cannot  be  done  by  the  preacher  alone.  All 
Christians  must  share  in  the  privilege,  that  they  may 
become  partakers  of  the  heavenly  rewards.  The 
philanthropic  work  of  the  church  should  be  organ- 
ized, and  the  largest  possible  number  of  church  mem- 
bers should  be  enlisted  in  it.  Most  of  them  will 
not  go  into  it  of  their  own  accord.     They  must  be 


BUILDING   THRONES  185 

called  to  it  by  the  pastor  and  trained  by  him  that 
they  may  do  it  well.  It  is  for  him  to  perform  the 
miracle  of  multipl3dng  the  pairs  of  consecrated  hands 
mitil  the  entire  community  feels  the  church's  heal- 
ing touch.  The  church  is  a  philanthropist.  Social 
service  is  a  power.  Philanthropy  is  an  additional 
flame-jet  in  the  genial  and  hospitable  candlestick. 
;  The  church  is  a  reforming  body.  Its  mission  is  to  j 
tiurn  the  world  upside  down.  It  must  prepare  the  \ 
way  of  the  Lord  and  make  his  paths  straight. 
It  must  torment  the  demons  before  their  time.  It 
must  put  its  foot  upon  serpents  and  scorpions.  It 
must  be  known  as  the  implacable  foe  of  things  evil. 
The  strongholds  of  iniquity  must  be  attacked,  and 
if  possible  pulled  down.  The  ideal  minister  is  a  war- 
rior. He  brings  not  peace  but  a  sword.  He  will 
make  bad  men  fear  him,  he  will  lay  siege  to  the  par- 
ticular evils  of  his^Bfci  town.  Those  of  antiquity 
may  be  referrecfllJPin  a  parenthesis,  and  so  may 
those  of  a  city  a  hundred  miles  away.  The  preacher 
must  decide  as  to  which  enemies  shall  be  first  as- 
saulted, and  then  proceed  to  lay  plans  for  accom- 
plishing their  overthrow.  But  the  preacher  cannot 
fight  alone.  He  is  only  a  general,  and  no  general 
fights  without  his  army.  The  church  is  an  army. 
This  was  Paul's  conception.    To  Timothy  he  wrote, 


1 86  BUILDING   THRONES 

''War  a  good  warfare."  This  assumes  that  a 
preacher  is  a  leader  in  a  long  campaign.  Some 
preachers  have  a  deal  to  say  about  the  church  mili- 
tant, but  their  churches  do  no  fighting.  A  church 
which  does  not  fight  is  a  church  whose  pastor  is  not  a 
general.  An  army  never  fights  unless  it  is  organized 
on  a  fighting  basis,  and  is  commanded  by  a  man 
who  is  not  averse  to  battle.  The  church  is  the  force 
with  which  the  preacher  is  to  wage  war.  He  must 
drill  his  soldiers  in  the  art  of  fighting.  Many  a  com- 
munity is  cursed  with  abuses  which  might  be  thrown 
off,  if  only  the  churches  would  stir  themselves.  The 
churches  would  put  on  the  armor,  if  only  they  had 
generals  with  a  genius  for  command.  Hundreds 
of  young  men  might  have  been  saved  to  the  church, 
had  only  the  preachers  of  the  town  picked  out  some 
one  formidable  fortress  of  the  enemy,  and  organized 
the  fighting  ability  of  the  youth  for  a  vigorous  and 
thriUing  campaign.  Young  men  want  something  to 
do.  By  the  grace  of  God  they  are  born  fighters.  If 
the  church  were  only  more  militant,  it  might  event- 
ually even  in  this  world  become  triumphant.  Spir- 
itual militarism  is  a  form  of  power.  Zeal  for  reform 
is  a  fifth  lamp  in  the  glorious  candlestick. 

Can  the  church  be  a  political  force  ?    If  by  political 
force  is  meant  a  force  influencing  the  temper  and  con- 


BUILDING   THRONES  1 87 

duct  of  government,  the  answer  is,  Yes.  Politics  is 
one  of  the  kingdoms  of  life,  and  the  church  is  to  be  a 
power  in  all  of  the  kingdoms.  A  preacher  is  a 
teacher  of  duty,  and  no  class  of  duties  can  be  counted 
trivial  or  unclean.  For  a  preacher  to  slur  or  over- 
look political  obligations  is  to  be  recreant  to  his 
trust.  Men  are  to  render  to  Caesar  the  things  which 
are  Caesar's.  The  officers  of  the  state  are  ministers 
of  God,  and  the  work  which  they  perform  is  a  part 
of  the  plan  of  the  Eternal.  Church  and  state  are  in 
a  sense  separate,  but  spiritually  they  are  united  by 
indissoluble  bonds.  They  act  and  react  upon  each 
other,  and  both  are  divine  agencies  ordained  for  the 
education  of  mankind.  Each  must  help  the  other 
to  be  what  it  ought  to  be.  The  church  must  be  held 
steadily  at  the  center  of  the  political  world.  The 
mind  of  Christ  must  be  built  into  the  state. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  preacher  shall  cham- 
pion favorite  candidates,  or  defend  party  platforms, 
or  advocate  partisan  programmes.  Party  meetings 
are  always  out  of  place  in  a  Christian  church,  and 
party  sermons  are  always  mischievous  in  a  Christian 
pulpit.  The  minister  who  attempts  to  dictate  to  men 
how  they  shall  vote,  or  who  ventures  even  to  advise 
a  course  of  political  action,  is  certain  to  suffer  the 
retribution  which  his  temerity  has  invited.     Why 


1 88  BUILDING  THRONES 

should  a  preacher  be  so  short-sighted  as  to  entangle 
himself  with  policies  and  parties,  when  he  can  do  a 
work  so  much  greater  by  rousing  souls  to  a  sense  of 
ci\dc  obKgation  ?  Why  try  to  build  a  political  party, 
when  one  can  build  a  political  power?  Why  not 
be  content  to  quicken  civic  conscience,  exalt  civic 
duties,  keep  social  problems  ever  before  men's  eyes, 
infuse  the  spirit  of  Christ  into  political  discussion, 
so  frame  the  sermons  that  forces  shall  leap  out  of 
them  generating  devotion  to  civic  ends  ?  The  min- 
ister is  a  prophet  of  the  Lord.  His  work  is  inspira- 
tional. He  is  a  builder  of  sentiments,  a  creator  of 
atmospheres.  It  is  for  him  to  strengthen  senti- 
ments which  will  strangle  politicians  of  the  baser  sort, 
and  create  an  atmosphere  in  which  many  a  boss  and 
heeler  will  meet  political  death  by  asphyxiation.  His 
work  is  to  enlarge  the  social  mind,  the  mind  that  con- 
cerns itself  with  communal  affairs,  and  that  labors  to 
extend  the  laws  of  Christ  over  widening  areas  of  life. 
Let  him  kindle  a  passion  for  social  justice,  intensify 
the  hunger  for  civic  righteousness,  and  make  men 
daring  in  the  face  of  depressing  situations.  Man  is  a 
political  animal.  His  political  nature  must  be  stimu- 
lated and  set  free.  A  religion  which  leaves  the  po- 
litical interests  and  activities  of  men  outside  its 
jurisdiction  is  not  a  religion  which  will   commend 


BUILDING   THRONES  1 89 

itself  to  twentieth  century  men.  The  church  must 
penetrate  everything  —  even  the  world  of  the 
politicians.  Passion  for  civic  righteousness  is  an- 
other torch  in  the  blazing  candlestick. 

The  church  is  a  missionary  body,  it  is  sent  on  an 
errand  to  the  whole  creation.  To  a  Christian  a  nar- 
row life  is  forbidden.  The  church  is  a  body  of  mis- 
sionaries, organized  for  the  purpose  of  sending  their 
thoughts  and  prayers  and  assistance  to  human 
beings  whom  they  have  never  seen.  It  is  by  the 
constant  forwarding  of  messages  of  good-will  and 
tokens  of  love  that  isolated  congregations  are  bound 
together  and  chasms  between  races  are  bridged.  The 
missionary  force  of  a  church  can  be  amazingly  multi- 
plied and  extended.  Everything  depends  on  the 
minister.  If  the  thoughts  of  his  people  do  not  reach 
round  the  world,  and  if  their  hearts  are  not  suffi- 
ciently capacious  to  hold  all  nations  and  races,  it  is 
because  his  own  vision  is  narrow  and  he  is  lacking  in 
the  skill  to  call  out  of  the  heart  the  forces  which  are 
deepest  and  mightiest.  The  preacher  who  informs 
himself  in  regard  to  missionary  heroes  and  labors, 
who  keeps  before  his  people  missionary  principles, 
motives,  problems,  and  victories,  who  organizes 
classes  among  the  old  and  the  young  for  the  study  of 
current  movements  in  the  missionary  world,  will  in 


190  BUILDING   THRONES 

time  create  a  body  of  missionary  sentiment  which 
will  make  itself  felt  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
smallest  and  poorest  congregation  can  be  trained  to 
carry  on  its  heart,  if  not  a  continent,  at  least  an  is- 
land in  a  distant  sea.  Missionary  enthusiasm  is  an- 
other luminous  wick  in  the  God-created  candlestick. 
These  are  seven  ways  in  which  the  church  brings 
its  life  to  bear  upon  the  world.  They  are  seven 
beams  of  light  streaming  out  across  human  lives  and 
homes,  calling  men  to  glorify  their  Father  who  is  in 
heaven.  They  are  seven  thrones  on  each  one  of 
which  Christ  is  seated,  asserting  his  sovereignty  over 
the  affairs  of  men.  The  hghts,  if  you  look  at  them 
long  enough,  all  blend  into  one  light,  and  the  thrones, 
if  you  consider  them  intently,  mass  themselves  into 
one  throne.  The  one  light  is  the  light  that  shines 
from  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  one 
throne  is  the  seat  of  the  King  who  wears  many 
crowns.  The  preacher  who,  by  giving  his  life  to  his 
church,  makes  it  potent  in  all  the  kingdoms  of  hu- 
man thought  and  activity,  has  sat  down  with  the 
King  of  kings  in  his  throne. 


LECTURE  VI 
THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 


THE  HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  the  local  con- 
gregation. Let  us  now  consider  the  relation  of  the 
congregation  to  other  congregations  of  the  same  com- 
munion, and  the  relation  of  these  communions  to 
other  communions  of  the  universal  church.  No 
congregation  lives  to  itself  or  dies  to  itself.  It  is 
part  of  an  organism,  intimately  knit  up  with  other 
bodies,  forming  a  living  whole.  A  pastor  is  bound 
to  take  heed  to  all  the  flock  in  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  has  made  him  a  bishop  or  overseer,  and  he 
must  so  conduct  his  work  as  to  feed  the  great  church 
of  God  of  which  his  particular  flock  is  a  tiny  frag- 
ment. Every  preacher  should  do  his  work  in  the 
radiance  of  the  vision  of  the  church  universal.  Thus 
labored  the  first  great  preacher,  Paul.  He  beheld 
the  church  always  looming  before  him  as  an  august 
and  heavenly  creation,  at  present  stained  and  marred 
by  human  imperfection,  but  growing  up  into  One 
able  to  make  it  a  glorious  church,  not  having  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing.  Belief  in  the  Holy  Catho- 
lic church  is  one  of  the  articles  of  the  universal  creed, 
o  193 


194  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

and  the  preacher  who  links  his  belief  in  the  church 
with  his  belief  in  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy- 
Spirit,  works  with  an  unfailing  energy  and  keeps  his 
heart  serene  in  the  midst  of  the  storms. 

There  is  but  one  church  known  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Christ  never  conceived  of  more  than  one.  His 
church  is  a  temple  and  it  is  built  upon  one  foundation. 
It  is  a  vine  of  which  he  is  the  stock,  and  believers  are 
branches.  Two  vines  are  unthought  of.  It  is  a  flock, 
and  while  there  may  be  many  folds,  there  can  never  be 
more  than  one  flock  under  the  care  of  one  Shepherd. 
Dissensions  and  divisions  were  the  one  evil  against 
which  Jesus  threw  his  heart  in  his  high-pries tJy  prayer, 
on  the  last  night.  That  his  church  may  be  one 
is  the  deep  and  constant  longing  of  his  soul. 

All  of  St.  Paul's  metaphors  are  stamped  with  the 
idea  of  unity.  He  sees  but  one  temple,  one  pillar, 
one  body,  one  bride,  one  household,  one  medium 
of  revelation.  When  enemies  filled  the  world  with 
rumors  that  he  and  the  apostles  in  Palestine  were 
building  on  different  foundations,  he  hastened  to 
Jerusalem,  and  by  a  public  conference  with  his 
brother  workers  endeavored  to  put  an  end  to  the 
damaging  insinuations.  He  knew  that  a  divided 
church  could  never  win  the  world.  He  who  builds 
on  a  separate  foundation  toils  in  vain. 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  1 95 

But  by  unity  is  not  meant  uniformity,  either  of  jllK 
government  or  of  polity  or  of  ritual.     Uniformity  is  I 
a  surface  thing,  unity  is  deep  and  vital.     * '  That  they 
may  be  one  in  us,"  which  being  interpreted  means 
one  in  character,  fellowship,   spirit,  love,   so  runs 
Jesus'  great  prayer,  and  it  is  the  same  sort  of  unity 
which  Paul  has  in  mind  when  he  exhorts  the  Ephe- 
sians  to  give  diligence  ''to  keep  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace."    To  Paul,  as  to  all  other 
New  Testament  writers,  ''There  is  one  body,  and 
one  Spirit,  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God 
and  Father  of  all."    The  unity  is  not  formal,  but  ^ 
spiritual. 

This  spiritual  unity  manifests  itself  outwardly, 
but  not  perfectly.  The  treasure  is  in  an  earthen 
vessel,  and  the  vessel  bears  the  flaws  of  its  origin. 
But  the  unity  is  none  the  less  real.  Imperfection 
mars,  but  does  not  destroy,  genuine  spiritual  posses- 
sions, either  in  individuals  or  organizations.  The 
unity  of  the  church  is  a  growing  unity,  and  passes 
gradually  from  less  to  more.  "Each  separate  build- 
ing, fitly  framed  together,  is  growing  into  a  holy 
temple  in  the  Lord."  The  unity  will  express  itself 
in  completer  manifestations  in  the  successive  stages 
of  the  unfolding  process,  until  all  groups  of  Christians 
"attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowl- 


196  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

edge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  full-grown  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ." 
If  all  Christians  are  only  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love,  then  all  will  grow  up  sometime,  somehow,  in  all 
things  into  him  which  is  the  Head,  even  Christ. 

The  real  unity  of  the  Christian  church  in  the 
twentieth  century  is  a  fact  which  every  preacher 
ougKt  to  see,  and  proclaim  with  joy.  Many  sour- 
eyed  prophets  have  gone  abroad,  bewailing  in  lugu- 
brious tones  the  church's  deplorable  and  diabolical 
divisions,  and  by  their  exaggerated  representations 
have  caused  many  even  of  the  elect  to  forget  sundry 
things  which  ought  to  be  held  steadily  in  mind. 
The  church  of  Christ  is  not  so  divided  as  it  looks. 
The  confusion  is  neither  so  deep  nor  deadly  as  it  has 
been  painted.  The  seamless  robe  of  Christ  is  not  so 
badly  torn  as  the  disconsolate  are  asserting.  In 
ritual  and  discipline  and  government  the  various 
bodies  of  the  Lord's  people  differ,  as  they  have  a  right 
to  do,  but  in  the  things  which  are  essential  they  are 
deeply  and  gloriously  united.  It  is  not  by  differences 
in  conception  of  God  and  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
of  character  and  duty  and  destiny,  but  chiefly  by 
divergent  views  in  regard  to  forms  of  ecclesiastical 
administration  that  the  various  Christian  commun- 
ions are  held  apart.    There  is  a  surprising  unity  in  all 


THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  1 97 

the  branches  of  Christendom  in  the  things  which  are 
fundamental.    All  Christians'of  whatever  name  unite 
in  repeating  the  Prayer  which  the  Lord  taught,  and 
in  their  extempore  petitions  they  pray  substantially, 
not  only  for  the  same  things,  but  largely  in  similar 
or  identical  phrases.     Every  Christian  pulpit  has 
in  it  the  same  text-book,  the  Bible.     The  words  of 
prophets  and  apostles  and  the  Lord  himself  are  in 
every  church  the  same.    All  Christian  bodies  sing 
hymns  made  sweet  by  the  name  of  Jesus.  In  nearly 
all  the  hymn-books  church  union  has  ahready  been 
consummated.     Christian  ministers  of  every  ecclesi- 
astical fellowship  baptize  men  into  the  name  of  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  make  use  of 
the  bread  and  the  wine  in  obedience  to  Him  who 
died  for  all.     All  the  great  branches  of  the  Christian 
church  repeat  the  Apostles'  Creed.    All  Christian 
commimions  produce  with  minor  variations  the  same 
general  type  of  character.    The  Christian  saints,  no 
matter  whence  they  come,  are  brothers,  and  carry  in 
their  faces  the  same  superscription.     All  Christians 
set  before  them  the  same  model  —  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
There  is  an  expanding  fellowship  in  work.     The 
Protestant  denominations  are  at  the  end  of  each  dec- 
ade closer  together  in  Christian  service,  and  all  the 
Christian  bodies  the  world  over,  when  not  degenerate, 


198  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

perform  similar  works  of  mercy.  In  every  commun- 
ion of  the  great  church,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  acknowl- 
edged Head.  His  name  is  above  every  name.  All 
Christendom  prostrates  itself  before. One  alone,  Jesus 
Christ,  proclaimed  in  sermon,  prayer,  and  song  the 
King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords. 

The  glory  of  the  church  universal  ought  to  shine 
round  a  man  in  the  hour  in  which  he  is  deciding  which 
one  of  the  various  households  of  the  common  faith 
he  shall  make  his  home.  It  is  a  matter  of  critical 
moment,  both  for  the  man  himself  and  the  cause  of 
Christ,  that  the  young  minister  shall  throw  his  life 
into  that  particular  Christian  group  which  shall  en- 
able him  to  render  largest  service  to  the  church 
universal.  He  should  keep  out  of  denominations 
which  have  no  solid  reason  for  their  continued  sepa- 
rate existence,  and  give  his  strength  to  a  commun- 
ion which  is  testifying  with  conspicuous  effective- 
ness to  a  truth  which  the  great  church  needs,  and 
which  is  keeping  alive  in  the  world  a  principle  which 
mankind  cannot  afford  to  let  die.  Protestantism 
is  needlessly  divided,  and  the  time  has  arrived  when 
many  of  the  smaller  denominations,  having  accom- 
plished the  specific  purpose  for  which  they  were  born, 
should  surrender  their  corporate  existence  in  the  in- 
terest of  a  more  effective  Christianity.    Young  men 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  I99 

of  education  and  power  cannot  afford  to  identify 
themselves  with  organizations  which  only  needlessly 
compKcate  the  doing  of  the  church's  business,  and 
which  render  a  feeble  and  dwindling  testimony  to 
the  great  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith.  A  man 
is  under  obligation  to  link  his  life  in  with  men  who 
are  doing  something  indispensable  and  enduringly 
valuable  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Having  decided  upon  his  denomination,  the 
preacher  must  then  consider  to  what  particular  parish 
he  shall  give  himself.  Here  again  a  wise  decision  can- 
not be  rendered  without  taking  into  account  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church.  The  minister  is  under  obliga- 
tion to  go  to  that  one  of  the  congregations  which  call 
him  in  which  he  can  render  largest  service  to  the  great 
church.  It  may  be  in  the  city  or  in  the  village,  in 
some  older  section  of  the  country  or  on  its  frontier, 
in  the  homeland  or  beyond  the  sea;  it  may  be  a 
large  church  or  a  small  church,  a  rich  church  or  a 
poor  church,  but  the  one  thing  essential  is  that  it 
shall  give  unimpeded  scope  for  the  free  exercise  of 
the  gifts  of  a  full-grown  man.  The  young  preacher 
cannot  allow  himself  to  go  into  a  community  which 
is  overchurched,  and  to  become  the  pastor  of  an  or- 
ganization which  is  not  needed.  He  should  not  listen 
to  any  advisers  who  counsel  him  to  squeeze  himself 


200  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

into  a  narrow  place,  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  the 
prestige  of  his  denomination,  or  of  carrying  out  the 
ambitious  plan  of  some  shortsighted,  overzealous 
missionary  secretary.  The  needless  multiplication 
of  churches  is  a  wicked  folly,  and  in  many  a  com- 
munity all  the  churches  but  one  ought  to  be  allowed 
to  die.  To  kill  them  outright  by  ecclesiastical  vote, 
is  at  present  an  impossibility,  but  young  ministers 
can  possibly  hasten  their  death  by  keeping  away 
from  them.  In  a  world  so  needy  as  this,  with  mul- 
titudinous, urgent  tasks  caUing  for  men,  it  is  a  tragic 
blunder  for  a  young  man  to  accept  the  pastorate  of 
a  church  in  which  it  is  not  possible  for  him  to  make 
his  life  count  in  the  work  of  his  generation.  Such  a 
course  is  ruinous  in  every  way.  The  preacher  him- 
self becomes  dwarfed  in  spirit  and  stunted  in  intel- 
lect. He  and  his  wife  are  likely  to  wear  out  their 
hearts  in  trying  to  live  upon  a  salary  totally  inade- 
quate to  their  needs.  Moreover,  the  dispositions 
created  in  small  communities  in  which  competing 
churches  struggle  for  precedence,  watching  one  an- 
other's every  movement  with  eyes  like  those  of 
jealous  animals,  are  states  of  mind  which  are  totally 
contrary  to  those  which  the  Gospel  is  intended  to 
foster,  and  render  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  an  utter  impossi- 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  20I 

bility.  Keep  away  from  the  church  that  has  no  ex- 
cuse for  its  existence  save  inherited  bigotry  or  de- 
nominational pride.  A  village  church,  or  a  coxmtry 
church,  if  it  commands  the  field,  is  a  great  opportu- 
nity for  any  man,  no  matter  how  wondrously  gifted. 
Because  a  church  is  poor  or  small  is  no  reason  why 
a  seminary  graduate  should  turn  his  back  upon  it, 
provided  it  has  a  field.  But  to  throw  one's  self  away 
in  the  attempt  to  keep  the  breath  of  life  in  one 
of  six  churches  in  a  community  which  needs  but  one 
or  two,  is  a  piece  of  foolishness  for  which  there  is  no 
justification.     It  is  not  self-sacrifice,  it  is  suicide. 

Having  chosen  your  denomination  and  your 
parish,  throw  yourself  into  your  church  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  it  a  power  among  the  churches  with 
which  it  is  connected  in  a  common  service.  A 
preacher  should  never  be  ashamed  of  his  denomina- 
tion, nor  should  he  underestimate  it.  Denomina- 
tionalism  is  just  now  receiving  many  stripes,  for  its 
Kmitations  and  bitter  fruits  are  numerous  and  con- 
spicuous. But  after  the  worst  has  been  said,  it 
remains  a  fact  that  denominationalism  has  brought 
upon  the  church  of  Christ  innumerable  and  im- 
measurable blessings.  The  revolt  from  Rome  in  the 
sixteenth  century  was  not  a  mistake.  The  course 
pursued  by  Calvin  was  not  a  blunder.      The  re- 


202  THE   HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

fusal  of  the  Puritans  to  submit  to  the  tyranny  and 
insolence  of  the  Anglican  Bishops  was  not  an  act 
to  be  apologized  for  by  their  descendants.  The 
freeing  of  the  Wesleyan  movement  from  the  Anglican 
church  was  ordained  of  God.  It  is  written  large 
across  the  face  of  the  modern  world  that  where  the 
church  is  most  diversely  organized,  there  is  it  most 
alive.  Uniformity  like  a  bewitching  dream  still 
haunts  many  minds,  but  it  is  an  ignis  fatuus  which 
leads  nations  into  quagmires.  It  is  where  the  church 
is  most  uniform  that  spiritual  vitality  is  least  abun- 
dant. The  religious  outlook  is  more  favorable  in 
Germany  than  in  Russia,  brighter  in  England  than 
in  Germany,  more  promising  in  the  United  States 
than  in  England.  God  seems  to  love  variety  in  the 
church,  as  he  loves  it  in  the  fields  and  in  the  sky. 
Liberty  in  the  choice  of  ritual  and  government 
may  create  a  temporary  and  disconcerting  confusion, 
but  it  ministers  mightily  to  life  and  progress.  If 
by  its  fruits,  then,  we  are  to  judge  denominationalism 
the  conclusion  is  unescapable  that  it  has  met  inex- 
orable needs  of  a  growing  world.  No  man  need  be 
ashamed  of  belonging  to  a  sect.  The  Roman  Catho- 
lic and  Episcopal  churches,  no  less  than  the  Metho- 
dist and  Baptist  churches,  are  sects,  sections  of  the 
great  Church  of  God.  The  Greek  church,  the  Church 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  203 

of  Rome,  the  Lutheran  church,  and  the  Church  of 
England,  no  less  than  the  Presbyterian  and  Congre- 
gational churches,  are  denominations,  groups  of  be- 
lievers in  the  great  Household  of  Faith.  There 
is  no  more  reason  why  a  man  should  be  ashamed  of 
belonging  to  a  sect,  than  of  belonging  to  a  regiment 
in  an  army.  It  is  only  by  division  and  subdivision 
that  an  army  is  rendered  effective,  and  so  it  is  only 
by  grouping  Christians  around  regimental  standards 
that  the  church  of  Christ  at  the  present  stage  of 
development  becomes  manageable  and  capable  of 
doing  its  largest  work.  A  soldier  does  not  show  dis- 
respect to  the  army  when  he  is  loyal  to  his  regiment. 
By  regimental  loyalty  he  increases  the  efficiency  of 
the  army.  His  value  to  the  army  is  measured  by 
his  fidehty  to  his  own  division  commander.  It  is 
only  when  the  separate  regiments  are  kept  to  a  high 
standard  of  action,  that  the  army  comes  into  pos- 
session of  conquering  power.  Every  preacher  is 
most  loyal  to  the  whole  church  of  Christ  when  he  is 
most  faithful  to  his  own  denomination.  The  two 
are  not  contradictory,  but  denominational  fidelity 
is  an  essential  condition  of  catholic  effectiveness. 
A  preacher  who  is  so  puffed  up  by  vague  ideas  of  Hber- 
aHty  as  to  be  indifferent  to  the  welfare  and  progress 
of  his  own  denomination,  is  a  preacher  who  need- 


204  THE   HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

lessly  circumscribes  his  influence  and  incapacitates 
himself  for  rendering  the  largest  service  to  the 
universal  church.  It  is  by  the  careful  training  of  his 
church  in  the  art  of  keeping  step  with  the  other 
churches  of  his  regiment,  that  he  makes  his  most 
valuable  contribution  to  the  fighting  strength  of 
the  army  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 

Ministers  in  the  early  years  of  their  ministry 
ought  to  be  diHgent  students  of  their  denominational 
Hterature.  They  ought  to  know  how  their  denomi- 
nation came  to  be,  the  truths  which  it  has  empha- 
sized, the  principles  which  it  has  glorified,  the  work 
which  it  has  accompHshed,  and  the  heroes  and 
saints  whom  it  has  presented  to  the  world.  They 
ought  to  famiharize  themselves  with  the  genius  and 
features  of  its  organization,  and  the  methods  of  its 
ecclesiastical  procedure,  paying  particular  attention 
to  the  achievements  and  present  enterprises  of  all 
its  missionary  organizations.  No  society  can  live 
and  work  without  machinery.  Machinery  is  run 
by  men.  To  help  run  the  denominational  machin- 
ery is  a  part  of  the  preacher's  work.  If  he  shirks 
it,  he  shows  himself  to  be  a  selfish  man.  Laymen 
are  not  to  be  excused  from  work  which  they  do  not 
Hke,  neither  are  preachers.  If  ministers  preach 
self-sacrifice,  they  ought  to  practise  it.     Denomi- 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  205 

national  meetings  may  not  be  always  interesting, 
and  the  details  of  administrative  business  may  be 
irksome,  but  loyalty  to  his  denomination  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  the  ministerial  virtues,  and  to 
sacrifice  his  time  and  strength  for  the  good  of  the 
related  churches  is  evidence  that  the  preacher  is  a 
Christian  man.  If  ministers  accept  the  emoluments 
and  honors  which  come  to  them  as  members  of  a 
noble  branch  of  the  church  of  God,  and  leave  the 
routine  and  necessary  ecclesiastical  work  to  their 
more  unselfish  brothers,  it  is  because  their  conscience 
is  undeveloped,  and  they  have  never  been  instructed 
in  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  the  departments 
of  clerical  obligation  and  service. 

Denominational  loyalty  brings  certain  disciplines 
which  render  men  more  effective  in  the  pulpit.  It 
is  a  good  thing  for  a  preacher  to  know  his  ministerial 
brethren,  especially  those  who  are  not  his  equals 
in  attainments  or  position.  The  humblest  and  most 
commonplace  servant  of  the  Lord  honestly  toihng 
in  the  obscurest  field,  is  not  unworthy  the  compan- 
ionship of  the  most  exalted  of  the  pulpit  princes. 
God  still  loves  the  humble  and  the  unnoticed, 
and  the  man  who  would  preach  with  searching  power 
must  keep  near  to  those  whom  God  loves.  A 
preacher  needs  the  widened  heart,  for  preaching  is 


206  THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

primarily  a  business  of  the  heart.  It  is  a  means  of 
grace  for  a  minister  to  know  and  love  his  brethren, 
high  and  low,  his  comrades  in  the  arduous  warfare, 
his  coworkers  in  a  hard  field.  He  can  afford  to  give 
time  and  thought  —  no  matter  how  large  his  parish 
—  to  those  who  are  pledged  with  him  to  support  the 
great  cause.  It  is  good  also  to  face  strong  men  in 
meetings  in  which  delicate  business  is  transacted 
and  estranging  questions  are  debated.  A  preacher 
needs  to  encounter  the  views  of  able  men  who  differ 
from  him,  and  to  listen  to  speeches  advocating 
positions  to  which  he  is  vigorously  opposed.  De- 
nominational conferences,  assembhes,  and  councils, 
are  a  school  in  which  the  pulpit  servants  of  the  Lord 
receive  a  training  which  can  be  gotten  nowhere  else. 
A  preacher  is  always  speaking  to  people  who  are  held 
by  church  etiquette  from  publicly  expressing  dissent, 
and,  therefore,  he  above  all  men  needs  to  face  from 
time  to  time  an  audience  which  will  not  hesitate  to 
tear  his  arguments  to  tatters,  and  vote  down  his 
most  cherished  propositions.  Instead  of  retreating 
into  his  parish  and  submerging  himself  in  parochial 
affairs,  he  needs  to  go  out  into  the  denominational 
world,  and  grapple  with  those  larger  problems  in 
which  thousands  of  churches  are  interested,  and  to 
combat,  if  necessary,  in  the  open  arena,  ideas  and 


THE  HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       207 

tendencies  which  in  his  judgment  do  not  make  for 
the  advancement  of  the  Kingdom.  It  is  dwarfing 
for  a  man  to  get  so  interested  in  his  own  congre- 
gation that  he  loses  sight  of  the  multitude  of  con- 
gregations whose  life  is  boimd  up  with  that  of  his 
own.  He  ought  to  lift  up  his  eyes  and  look,  and 
train  his  people  to  lift  up  their  eyes  and  look,  upon 
the  great  company  of  comrades  with  whom  they 
are  marching.  It  is  for  him  to  develop  in  his  people 
a  denominational  consciousness,  a  quickened  sense 
that  they  belong  to  others.  The  bonds  must  be 
strengthened  between  his  church  and  its  sister 
churches.  His  church  must  be  kept  in  touch_with 
the  movement  of  the  entire  body  to  which  it  belongs. 
Denominational  opportunities  and  problems  and 
enterprises  ought  to  be  given  a  conspicuous  place, 
and  the  sweep  of  the  preacher's  thought  should  keep 
his  hearers  alive  to  the  fact  that  they  are  a  part 
of  an  interested  company  engaged  in  a  common 
work,  and  moving  toward  a  common  goal. 

WHien  a  congregation  falls  out  of  sympathy  with  its 
sister  congregations,  and  wraps  itself  up  completely 
in  its  own  local  tasks,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  preacher. 
>  An  isolated  preacher  insulates  his  church.  The  cur- 
rents of  the  common  life  do  not  flow  through  him  or 
his  people.    Such  a  preacher  is  not  a  builder.    He  can 


208       THE  HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

mould  and  place  a  piece  of  stucco,  but  he  cannot 
construct  a  segment  of  a  great  arch.  The  vaulting 
spiritual  relationships  and  the  overarching  sym- 
pathies and  unities  which  hung  always  before  the 
eye  of  the  master-builder  of  Tarsus  are  clean  beyond 
his  ken.  Alas  for  the  preacher  whose  uttermost 
horizon  is  the  narrow  boundary  of  his  own  little 
parish.  Why  should  not  every  preacher  so  live  and 
labor  as  to  help  shape  the  ideals  and  dispositions 
of  his  entire  regiment  ?  To  influence  one's  denomi- 
nation, however,  one  must  pay  the  price.  The 
price  is  self-sacrificing  loyalty,  honest  and  self-abne- 
gating service.  A  preacher  cannot  influence  his 
brethren  unless  he  loves  them.  He  cannot  stand 
high  in  the  denominational  councils  unless  he  serves. 
If  any  man  is  to  be  great  among  the  churches  of 
his  order,  he  must  become  the  servant  of  all. 

Here  again  a  plea  is  made  for  narrowness  in  the 
interest  of  breadth.  The  preacher  is  to  concentrate 
his  powers  upon  his  congregation  for  the  sake  of  his 
denomination.  He  is  to  exalt  and  adorn  his  denomi- 
nation for  the  sake  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. 
If  his  denomination  suffers,  then  all  the  denomina- 
tions suffer  with  it;  or  if  his  denomination  is  honored, 
then  all  have  reason  to  rejoice  with  it.  The  various 
denominations  constitute  the  body  of  Christ,  and  are 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  209 

members  in  particular.  There  should,  therefore, 
be  no  schism,  but  the  denominations  should  have 
the  same  care  one  for  another.  Each  denomination 
does  something  which  no  other  can  do  quite  so  well. 
Each  performs  a  function  which  ministers  to  the  life 
of  all.  Differing  widely  in  form  and  structure,  they 
yet  belong  to  one  another.  There  are  diversities  of 
workings,  but  it  is  the  same  God  who  worketh  all 
things  in  all.  The  eye  ought  not  to  say  to  the  hand, 
^'I  have  no  need  of  thee,"  nor  again  the  head  to  the 
feet,  "  I  have  no  need  of  you."  Even  denominations 
which  seem  to  be  feeble  may  for  the  present  be  nec- 
essary, and  deserve  a  more  abundant  honor.  There 
are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit.  And 
there  are  diversities  of  ministrations,  and  the  same 
Lord.  To  each  one  is  given  the  manifestation  of 
the  Spirit  to  profit  withal.  Having  gifts  differing 
according  to  the  grace  that  was  given,  every  denomi- 
nation ought  to  do  superbly  the  particular  thing 
which  it  feels  called  to  do,  not  for  its  own  self-ag- 
grandizement, but  for  the  enrichment  of  the  univer- 
sal church.  If  a  denomination  feels  itself  intrusted 
with  the  work  of  emphasizing  a  particular  truth, 
then  the  better  its  work  is  performed,  the  sooner 
will  other  denominations  be  impressed  by  that 
truth,  and  be  induced  to  give  it  place  in  their  own 


2IO  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

teaching  and  practice.  If  a  principle  is  indeed  a 
thought  of  God,  and  one  branch  of  the  church  is  led 
by  the  Spirit  to  give  it  a  wider  appHcation  in  human 
life,  then  with  every  increase  in  the  strength  of  this 
branch  of  the  church  comes  a  fresh  power  of  this 
principle  in  its  operation  in  the  life  of  the  whole. 
Every  denomination  intrusted  with  a  special  grace 
owes  it  to  all  the  other  denominations  so  to  incarnate 
the  heavenly  treasure  as  to  make  it  seem  a  desirable 
possession.  Love  does  not  require  that  men  shall 
suppress  their  deepest  convictions,  and  keep  silence 
in  regard  to  truths  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  to  them 
made  clear.  It  is  only  by  the  brave  and  persistent 
affirmation  of  those  things  which  keep  weUing  up  in 
the  heart,  that  the  whole  truth  finds  expression  and 
the  church  of  God  becomes  the  medium  for  the 
transmission  of  an  unmutilated  message.  It  is  for 
the  great  church  that  each  branch  of  the  church 
lives  and  labors.  Sectarianism  of  the  baser  sort 
begins  with  the  sect  and  ends  there.  It  is  the 
conceit  of  the  branch  affirming  that  it  is  the  vine. 
Denominationalism  is  always  a  curse  when  it  lifts 
the  denomination  above  the  church  universal.  It 
is  not  more  disgraceful  to  belong  to  a  sect  than  it 
is  for  a  leaf  to  grow  on  a  twig  or  for  a  twig  to  grow 
on  a  branch,  but  it  is  disgraceful  for  the  leaf  to 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  211 

forget  the  twig,  and  for  the  branch  to  imagine  it  is 
the  tree.  Sectarianism  when  baptized  into  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  ends  with  the  great  church.  The 
branch  drinks  in  the  sun  and  the  rain  in  order  to 
add  vigor  and  fruitfulness  to  the  tree.  It  is  fidelity 
to  the  great  whole  which  saves  the  parts  from  petti- 
ness and  decay. 

The  preacher  needs  this  vision  to  keep  the  gospel 
vital  on  his  lips.  Only  men  of  capacious  heart  can 
preach  with  power  the  message  which  thrilled 
prophets  and  apostles.  It  is  a  scandal  in  the  Chris- 
tian church  when  a  minister  is  a  petty  man.  A  thin 
and  stunted  personality  cannot  be  a  fit  channel  for 
the  heavenly  grace.  Conceited  pedants,  opinionated 
snobs,  and  supercilious  dandies  may  stand  in  a 
Christian  pulpit,  but  they  cannot  preach  the  Gospel. 
The  Gospel  is  the  message  of  the  broadminded, 
sweet-hearted,  lofty-spirited,  brotherly  Son  of  God. 
To  make  himself  large  enough  to  transmit  even  a  httle 
of  the  Master's  spirit  is  a  true  preacher's  lifelong 
ambition  and  unending  struggle.  The  great  sen- 
tences of  the  New  Testament  shrivel  on  the  lips 
of  narrow-headed  zealots,  who  excommunicate  their 
brethren  who  differ  from  them.  In  the  eyes  of  God, 
he  is  both  heretic  and  schismatic  who  by  word  or 
action  breaks  the  law  of  love.     The  preacher  who 


212  THE   HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

wishes  to  preach  with  the  apostolic  accent  must 
breathe  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  apostles  did 
their  work.  He  must  come  under  the  power  of  Him 
who  is  the  express  image  of  the  infinitely  sympa- 
thetic and  all-embracing  God.  Devotion  to  the 
church  ought  to  add  cubits  to  a  man's  spiritual  stature 
and  new  diameters  to  the  circle  of  his  sympathies. 
If  the  word  ecclesiastic  has  taken  on  a  dark  and 
sinister  meaning,  it  is  only  an  added  proof  of  the 
wizardry  of  the  mystery  of  evil  which  is  able  to 
corrupt  human  hearts  even  when  engaged  with 
things  holiest  and  highest. 

It  is  wholesome  to  form  the  habit  of  speaking  of 
the  church  as  the  Church  of  God.  The  phrase  is 
apostolic  and  breathes  a  majesty  and  elevation 
which  adjectives  coined  in  denominational  mints  are 
likely  to  obscure.  Along  with  the  books  which  deal 
with  the  history  and  teachings  of  his  own  denomina- 
tion, the  preacher  should  find  room  for  volumes 
telling  the  story  of  other  communions  which  have 
also  borne  the  burden,  and  which  are  making  certain 
by  their  sacrifices  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Christ. 
In  no  branch  of  the  Christian  church  has  Cjod  left 
himself  without  a  witness,  and  if  we  are  to  judge  re- 
ligious organizations  by  their  fruits,  then  all  of  them 
have  won  his  favor,  for  all  have  received  manifold 


THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  213 

tokens  of  his  grace.  There  is  no  study  more 
profitable  for  the  preacher  than  the  study  of  the 
lives  of  saints  and  martyrs  reared  in  communions 
outside  his  own.  It  breaks  down  native  bigotries 
and  inherited  prejudices,  and  brings  the  soul  to  the 
place  in  which  the  astonished  Peter  found  himself 
when  he  cried  out  in  the  hearing  of  his  incredulous 
fellow-countrymen  who  were  resisting  the  admission 
of  the  Gentiles  into  the  church,  ''If  then  God  gave 
unto  them  the  like  gift  as  he  did  also  unto  us, 
who  was  I  that  I  coiild  withstand  God?"  To  all 
the  groups  of  men  who  have  lived  and  labored  in  the 
power  of  Christ  has  God  granted  repentence  unto 
life,  and  from  every  denomination  can  the  preacher 
gather  wealth  with  which  to  make  himself  and  his 
people  rich. 

But  better  than  communing  with  the  souls  of 
men  who  are  in  their  graves  is  holding  fellow- 
ship with  men  who  are  now  ahve.  Every  preacher 
should  make  friends  outside  of  his  own  denomina- 
tional household.  It  tones  up  the  heart  to  com- 
mune with  saints  of  Christian  churches  far  removed 
in  tradition  and  custom  from  one's  own.  Each  ec- 
clesiastical discipline  imparts  a  peculiar  blessing  to 
those  who  are  subjected  to  it,  which  can  be  com- 
municated in  a  measure  by  its  possessors  to  those 


214  THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

whom  God  has  educated  in  a  different  school. 
The  preacher  who  is  content  to  know  his  denomi- 
national brethren  only,  and  who  has  no  desire  to  min- 
gle with  those  who  see  the  truth  from  a  different  an- 
gle and  express  it  in  a  different  terminology,  robs 
himself  of  a  means  of  spiritual  culture  which,  if  used, 
would  make  him  a  stronger  preacher  and  a  nobler 
man.  Nothing  ministers  more  effectively  to  the 
cause  of  Christian  unity  than  the  bringing  of  clergy- 
men of  different  denominations  together.  Denomi- 
national isolation  breeds  suspicion  and  raises  many 
a  spectre  in  the  mind.  We  are  always  farthest  from 
the  men  we  know  the  least.  It  is  easy  to  say  un- 
charitable things  about  a  body  of  Christians  with  not 
one  of  whose  members  we  are  acquainted .  Men  who 
have  friends  in  all  denominations  never  degenerate 
into  bigots,  and  sometimes  become  prophets  of  rec- 
onciliation. The  preacher  must  be  a  man  with  a 
friendly  heart.  He  must  be  the  friend  of  publicans 
and  sinners,  and  also  of  saints  who  do  not  agree  with 
him  in  many  of  his  customs  and  ideas.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  be  just  to  those  who  differ  from  us  in  opinion 
upon  matters  which  we  consider  momentous,  and  it  is 
a  still  greater  thing  to  be  generous.  To  value  virtues 
which  are  unlike  those  which  our  fathers  counted 
cardinal,  and  to  appreciate  teachings  which  have 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  21 5 

to  US  an  unfamiliar  sound,  is  not  easy.  To  put  one's 
self  into  the  other  man's  place  is  in  every  depart- 
ment of  life  difficult,  probably  nowhere  more  diffi- 
cult than  in  the  realm  of  reHgion.  But  to  do  this  is  a 
manifest  duty  of  every  Christian,  and  especially  of 
the  preacher.  The  preacher  who  makes  disparag- 
ing remarks  or  ungenerous  statements  about  other 
branches  of  the  church,  or  who  caricatures  their 
doctrines,  forfeits  the  respect  of  all  right-minded 
men.  A  speaker  is  never  imder  such  obligation  to 
be  scrupulously  correct,  down  to  the  last  syllable,  as 
when  he  attempts  to  state  the  position  of  men  from 
whom  he  differs.  If  the  preacher  wishes  to  contro- 
vert the  doctrines  of  another  religt^fe  body,  let  him 
study  those  doctriffe  as  presented  by  their  ablest  ex- 
ponents, and  then  state  them  in  the  most  plausible 
manner  in  which  it  is  possible  for  them  to  be  put. 
Christian  scholars  are  not  fools  even  if  they  do  not 
follow  after  us,  and  their  positions  are  not  to  be 
overturned  by  a  caricature  or  a  jeer,  but  by  an 
argument  framed  of  reasons  which  will  win  the  as- 
sent of  the  unprejudiced  mind.  Controversy  is  a 
hazardous  and  exacting  business,  and  the  man  who 
enters  it  must  have  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart. 
Useless  controversy  is  always  to  be  avoided,  and 
most   pulpit   controversies   are   useless.     The  con- 


2l6  THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

troversial  preacher  is  as  a  rule  an  unprofitable  ser- 
vant. Even  if  he  keeps  his  own  spirit  sweet,  he  is 
hkely  to  ruffle  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  The  net 
result  of  his  labors  is  ordinarily  nothing.     Few 

•/  things  are  settled  by  controversy.  It  is  by  empha- 
sizing the  things  upon  which  all  Christians  are  agreed, 
rather  than  by  harping  upon  the  things  about  which 
they  differ,  that  the  divisions  of  Christendom  are  to  be 
healed.  Each  denomination  must  work  out  its  own 
salvation,  and  the  best  thing  which  surrounding 
denominations  can  do  is  to  hold  up  a  light.  Let  the 
preacher  attempt  to  reform  his  own  church  family 
rather  than  try  to  set  right  his  neighbors.  Sending 
a  chilling  gale  of  criticism  against  a  neighboring 
church  has  a  tendency  to  cause  it  to  draw  its  obnox- 
ious mantle  more  closely  about  it.  Churches  ac- 
complish most  when  they  shine.  It  is  not  when 
they  cudgel  one  another,  but  when  each  one  goes 
out  with  its  lamp  burning  to  meet  its  Lord,  that  they 
get  rid  of  their  errors,  and  come  closest  together. 
The  church  farthest  from  our  Protestant  churches 

,  is  the  Roman  Cathohc,  and  none,  therefore,  is 
better  worth  our  knowing.  A  Protestant  preacher 
who  is  not  acquainted  with  the  history  and  doctrines 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  has  been  negligent 
at  a  point  at  which  carelessness  is  calamitous.     Be- 


THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  21 7 

cause  of  its  size,  embracing  nearly  one-half  of 
all  the  Christians  in  the  world,  because  of  its  long 
history,  extending  through  so  many  centuries,  and 
because  of  its  present  power  over  the  lives  of  men 
and  nations,  it  deserves  above  all  other  religious 
organizations  to  be  studied  and  understood.  Both 
Protestants  and  CathoHcs  are  less  informed  of  each 
other's  doctrines  than  they  ought  to  be,  and  it  is  the 
ignorance  on  both  sides  which  is  accountable  for 
many  things  which  good  men  have  reason  to  deplore. 
The  fact  that  Roman  CathoHcs  differ  so  widely 
from  us  at  many  points  renders  patient  and  sym- 
pathetic study  doubly  necessary.  It  is  easy  to  mis- 
understand those  who  are  far  away.  By  the  haze 
of  distance  virtues  are  often  hidden  and  vices  enor- 
mously magnified.  To  understand  his  Roman  Cath- 
olic brethren  is  one  of  the  urgent  duties  of  a  Protes- 
tant minister.  The  teachings  of  CathoHcism  should 
be  learned  from  her  own  authors,  undistorted  and  un- 
colored  by  the  interpretations  of  Protestant  exposi- 
tors. We  do  not  hesitate  to  kindle  our  spirits  at  the 
fire  which  burns  in  Augustine's  ''Confessions,"  or  in 
Thomas  a  Kempis'  "Imitation  of  Christ,"  and  we 
gladly  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  to  men  like 
Francis  of  Assisi,  and  Bernard  of  Clairvaux.  It  is 
also  worth  one's  while  to  study  Roman  Catholic  histo- 


2l8  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

ries,  and  to  master  the  arguments  of  the  great  Roman 
CathoHc  theologians.  But  better  still  than  knowing 
Roman  Catholic  books,  is  knowing  living  Roman 
Catholic  men.  There  is  no  substitute  for  fellowship, 
and  when  Roman  Catholic  priests  and  Protestant 
ministers  come  to  know  one  another,  the  chasm 
between  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  worlds 
will  be  less  deep  than  it  is.  It  is  the  separation  of  the 
two  sets  of  men  from  each  other  which  has  perpetu- 
ated suspicions  and  ill-will  that  ought  to  have 
died  long  ago.  To  many  a  Protestant  the  candles 
and  the  incense  and  the  sanctus  bell  are  so  foreign, 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  church  seems  to  belong  to 
another  world.  Between  the  pomp  of  the  gorgeous 
ceremonial  before  the  grand  altar,  and  the  unadorned 
simplicity  of  a  Protestant  order  of  service,  there 
appears  to  be  no  point  in  common.  But  when  de- 
vout Protestants  and  Catholics  meet  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  friendly  intercourse  they  discover  that  they 
are  not  so  far  apart  as  it  seemed.  Underneath  the 
paraphernalia  of  Roman  Catholicism  there  beats  a 
great  Christian  heart,  and  a  Protestant  preacher 
ought  to  know  it  and  enter  into  sympathy  with  it. 
It  is  a  blessing  to  any  Protestant  minister  to  num- 
ber among  his  friends  a  few  noble  Catholic  priests. 
Through  these  friends  he  will  see  the  whole  Catholic 


THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  219 

church  in  a  new  light,  and  because  of  them  he  will 
be  less  inclined  to  say  bitter  things  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic errors.     That  Roman  Catholicism  has  overlaid 
the  simplicity  of  the  gospel  with  needless  mysteries 
and  bewildering  traditions,  and  teaches  certain  doc- 
trines which  are  erroneous  and  therefore  mischiev- 
ous, is  a  fact  of  which  an  instructed  Protestant  has 
no  doubt.     That  some  of  her  practices  are  dangerous 
and  some  of  her  emphases  overdone,  is  also  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  hidden.     But  there  is  something 
more  in  Roman  CathoHcism  than  error,  and  all  her 
actions  are  not  blunders.     In  every  century  she  has 
given  the  world  scholars,  saints,  and  martyrs,  and 
while  her  sins  have  been  crimson,  she  is  not  without 
achievements  of  imperishable  renown.     If  she  has 
not  always  treated  Protestants  with  mercy  or  even 
justice,  our  duty  to  her  remains  the  same.     We 
are  to  remember  that  she  is  not  the  only  sinner, 
and  that  we  too  are  not  free  from  guilt.     If,  ecclesi- 
astically speaking,  she  curses  us,  we  are  nevertheless 
to  bless  her.     If  she  hates  us,  we  are  to  pray  for 
her,  and  if  she  persecutes  us  and  despitefully  uses 
us  in  all  countries  in  which  she  has  the  power,  we 
are,  in  all  ways  which  are  open,  to  do  good  unto  her. 
To  brood  over  wrongs  committed  centuries  ago,  to 
feel  resentment  toward  men  now  living  because  of 


220  THE   HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

what  men  did  whose  bodies  have  long  since  been 
dust,  to  exploit  the  moral  delinquencies  of  unworthy 
men  who  may  officiate  at  her  altars,  to  coin  suspi- 
cions into  slanders,  and  convert  inferences  into 
wholesale  condemnations,  this  is  not  worthy  of  any 
man  who  calls  himself  a  Christian,  and  in  Protestant 
ministers  it  is  monstrous.  Wherein  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  is  in  need  of  reformation,  we  can 
help  her  most  by  genuine  sympathy  and  whole- 
hearted affection  and  good-will.  We  cannot  refrain 
from  teaching  and  preaching  certain  doctrines  which 
are  contrary  to  hers,  for  to  be  silent  would  be  to  be 
recreant  to  the  trust  which  has  been  given  us,  and 
would  withhold  from  her  the  blessing  which  we  feel 
sure  we  are  able  to  impart.  But  we  can  hold  our 
tongue  from  slander,  and  can  keep  back  our  lips 
from  speaking  sentences  which  stab  and  burn.  We 
can  speak  the  truth  in  love,  and  when  we  differ 
we  can  do  it  in  a  way  which  shows  unutterable 
regret.  Instead  of  dwelHng  upon  her  failures  and 
her  errors^  we  can  meditate  occasionally  upon  the 
good  things  which  she  has  long  been  doing  and  which 
she  is  doing  still.  We  can  rejoice  that  she  trains  men 
to  worship.  It  is  her  glory  that  she  teaches  men  to 
kneel.  She  builds  up  in  human  hearts  the  sense  of 
reverence,  and  leaves  men  awestruck  and  wondering. 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  221 

The  world  is  indebted  to  her  for  bending  the  human 
knee.  She  teaches  the  principle  of  obedience.  She 
beheves  in  subordination.  These  are  divine  prin- 
ciples which  need  emphasis,  and  in  building  them 
into  the  souls  of  men  is  she  ministering  to  all  man- 
kind. She  exalts  and  glorifies  the  duty  of  loyalty  to 
the  church.  The  love  of  devout  CathoHcs  for  the 
church  is  inexpressibly  beautiful.  For  the  church, 
CathoHcs  will  make  all  sacrifices.  Their  devotion 
travels  all  the  way  to  the  gates  of  death.  She  has 
the  sense  of  solidarity  and  feels  the  power  of  the 
subtle  Hnks  which  bind  the  generations  together. 
Her  saints  run  backward  through  the  centuries,  and 
she  trains  men  to  think  of  the  church  as  a  vast  so- 
ciety extended  over  the  earth  and  sweeping  into  the 
heavens,  gathering  into  itself  all  the  affections  of  the 
heart,  and  the  entire  circle  of  the  interests  of  man- 
kind. Before  the  eyes  of  the  devout  Roman  Catho- 
lic the  church  of  God  looms  sovereign  and  glorious, 
the  very  home  and  shrine  of  the  Eternal.  If  we 
have  much  to  teach  her,  she  has  also  much  to  teach 
us.  If  she  has  overemphasized  certain  principles, 
we  have  overemphasized  others.  If  she  has  over- 
looked important  truths,  we  also  have  not  been  free 
from  dimsightedness.  It  is  a  solace  and  a  strength 
to  know  that  CathoHcs  and  Protestants  belong  to- 


222       THE  HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

gether,  and  that,  in  spite  of  our  many  differences,  we 
are  in  the  depths  of  our  aspirations  and  hopes  one. 

Prepare,  then,  by  your  preaching  the  way  which 
shall  lead  to  a  reunited  church.  It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  this  church  unity  shall  be,  but  we  know 
that  when  it  appears  it  shall  have  a  form  which  the 
Lord  himself  approves.  When  it  shall  come  no 
man  knows,  possibly  not  even  the  angels  of  God. 
It  is  not  for  us  to  know  times  and  seasons,  but 
power  has  been  promised,  and  by  that  power  we  are 
to  conquer  the  alienations  and  separations  of  Chris- 
tendom. Every  man  now  entering  the  ministry 
ought  to  ponder  the  fact  that  there  is  a  world-wide 
yearning  for  Christian  unity  and  also  for  church 
union.  This  is  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times  which 
preachers  are  called  to  interpret.  The  Spirit  of 
God  is  saying  something  to  all  of  our  churches,  and 
it  is  for  the  men  in  the  pulpits  to  train  the  congre- 
gations to  listen. 

But  the  reunion  of  Christendom  is  not  coming  in  a 
day,  nor  as  the  result  of  any  adroitly  devised  scheme. 
The  men  who  rush  up  and  down  the  world  exploiting 
plausible  programs  for  bringing  separated  commun- 
ions together,  are  not  the  men  who  are  doing  most  to 
put  an  end  to  our  regrettable  divisions.  It  is  not  by 
propositions  or  compromises  that  the  mighty  mir- 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  223 

acle  is  to  be  wrought,  but  by  the  baptism  of  the  hu- 
man heart  into  a  nobler  spirit,  and  a  fuller  entrance 
on  the  part  of  Christian  people  into  the  thought  and 
Hfe  of  God.  Before  we  have  church  union  we  must 
all  go  deeper  and  rise  higher.  Men  say,  "Lo,  here 
is  a  platform  upon  which  we  all  can  stand,"  or  ''Lo, 
there  are  conditions  which  we  are  all  able  to  accept," 
but  he  who  is  wise  will  not  place  undue  confidence 
in  the  promises  of  the  vehement  and  pushing  proph- 
ets. Unity  is  a  growth  and  not  a  manufactured  prod-"^ 
uct.  Growths  cannot  be  forced  without  deranging 
the  processes  of  hfe.  Forced  reunions  result  in  fresh 
divisions.  The  churches  cannot  be  welded  together 
by  the  hammers  of  our  flaming  ecclesiastical  states- 
men. They  must  be  permitted  to  grow  together,  for, 
be  it  not  forgotten,  the  building  upon  which  preachers 
are  working  partakes  of  the  quaHties  of  an  edifice 
and  also  of  a  Hving  organism,  and  no  matter  how 
industrious  and  ingenious  the  workmen,  they  are 
compelled  to  wait  patiently  for  the  completion  of  the 
foreordained  stages  of  a  development  which  human 
ingenuity  is  unable  to  hasten  or  alter.  It  is  a  para- 
dox of  Christianity  that  to  go  fast,  one  must  go  slow. 
In  the  realm  of  the  spirit  the  shortest  distance  be- 
tween two  points  is  not  a  straight  Hne.  During  the 
last  fifty  years  the  churches  have  been  growing  to- 


224  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

gether.  Much  of  the  bitterness  and  belligerency  has 
already  disappeared.  Open  hostility  has  well-nigh 
ceased  in  all  communities  in  which  the  people  have 
emerged  from  the  stone  age.  In  large  sections  of 
the  Christian  world  the  various  communions  are  at 
present  going  their  several  ways,  no  longer  caring 
to  fight  one  another,  but  not  quite  prepared  yet  to 
love  one  another.  We  have  the  quietude  of  indif- 
ference, but  not  the  full-toned  harmony  of  consent- 
ing minds.  But  here  and  there  are  signs  of  a  new 
era.  It  is  daybreak  in  many  lands.  The  principle 
of  denominational  comity  is  receiving  a  widening 
recognition,  and  cooperation  is  being  extended  over 
larger  fields.  Federation  on  a  limited  scale  has  already 
passed  from  the  realm  of  hope  into  that  of  fact,  while 
a  few  audacious  spirits  even  dare  to  dream  of  an  or- 
ganic imion  that  shall  take  in  the  entire  Protestant 
world.  The  young  men  are  seeing  visions  and  the 
old  men  are  dreaming  dreams,  and  some  beautiful 
thing  will  some  day  come  to  pass.  Whatever  a 
preacher  may  think  of  the  present  practicability 
of  organic  union,  or  even  of  federation,  he  is  under 
obligation  to  make  the  church  of  which  he  is  the 
pastor  increasingly  Christian.  He  cannot  escape  the 
duty  of  working  in  season  and  out  of  season  for  a 
fuller  Christian  unity.     Out  of  a  richer  spiritual  unity 


THE   HOLY  CATHOLIC   CHURCH  225 

will  come,  in  God's  good  time,  new  comities,  fresh 
federations,  and  amazing  organic  imions.  If  he 
desires  church  miion,  then  let  the  preacher  develop 
the  spirit  of  Christian  unity.  Let  him  exorcise  by 
his  sermons  the  demons  of  suspicion,  jealousy,  big- 
otry, exclusiveness,  and  ecclesiastical  snobbishness, 
and  endeavor  to  set  his  people  in  the  right  attitude 
to  all  who  take  upon  their  lips  the  blessed  name. 
Let  him  build  up  the  art  of  sympathy,  the  capacity 
of  appreciation,  and  the  principle  of  cooperation, 
and  give  to  his  church  a  corporate  consciousness, 
a  catholic  spirit,  a  friendly  disposition  toward  all 
who  bow  at  the  name  of  Jesus.  This  is  foundation 
work,  and  a  deal  of  it  must  still  be  done  before  we  are 
prepared  to  attempt  any  of  those  imposing  super- 
structures of  church  union  which  tantalize  the  im- 
agination and  set  the  heart  beating.  The  selfish- 
ness of  the  old  individuaUsm  runs  like  a  virus  in  the 
blood,  and  the  present  generation  is  not  prepared 
for  those  larger  forms  of  union  which,  please  God,  are 
sure  to  come.  Many  a  man  has  wasted  his  life  in 
pushing  things  which  were  premature.  It  is  tragic 
for  men  to  try  to  lift  the  world  by  ecclesiastical 
devices  to  a  position  which  it  is  the  divine  will  shall 
be  attained  only  by  a  steady  and  silent  growth  con- 
tinued through  many  seasons.     The  organic  union 

Q 


\ 


226  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

of  all  Christian  bodies  is  below  the  horizon  of  us  who 
are  now  living,  but  the  work  of  promoting  spiritual 
unity  is  practicable  and  urgent.  In  spite  of  dif- 
ferences in  organization  and  diversities  of  worship, 
the  branches  of  the  church  can  be  brought  closer 
together  in  aspiration  and  endeavor.  Congregations 
can  be  lifted  above  the  things  which  divide  and 
alienate.  We  can  plan  and  lift  together.  We  can 
join  our  forces  in  the  work  of  casting  out  demons. 
We  can  all  join  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Basin  and 
Towel.  It  is  impossible  to  obliterate  in  the  present 
century  all  the  marks  of  division,  but  every  one  of 
us  can  contribute  something  to  the  growing  unity 
of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. 

Preachers  need  the  inspiration  which  comes  from 
the  vision  of  the  great  church  to  keep  their  hearts 
from  fainting  in  the  day  of  battle.  It  is  disastrous 
to  a  preacher  to  have  an  outlook  which  is  narrowed. 
Human  nature  is  prone  to  despondency,  and,  how- 
ever optimistic  the  temperament  of  the  preacher, 
the  down-pulling  force  of  the  world's  unbelief  is  sure 
to  leave  its  mark  upon  him.  The  tremendous  power 
of  evil  grows  upon  the  Christian  worker  through  the 
years.  There  is  no  mystery  so  deep  as  the  mystery 
of  iniquity,  except  the  mystery  of  love.  A  young 
man,   confident  in  his  strength,  feels  during  the 


THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  227 

earlier  years  of  his  ministry  that  he  can  successfully 
cope  with  this  mystery  of  evil,  possibly  overcome  it. 
So  Elijah  felt,  and  so  have  all  young  men  felt  in  the 
first  flush  of  their  initial  victories.  But  as  life  ad- 
vances, the  battlefield  widens,  and  the  warrior  be- 
gins to  see  that  he  is  wrestling  not  against  flesh  and 
blood,  but  against  the  principalities,  against  the 
powers,  against  the  world  rulers  of  this  darkness, 
against  the  spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness  in  the 
heavenly  places.  It  is  when  the  implacable  enemy 
reveals  undreamed-of  ranges  of  his  infernal  and  im- 
measurable strength,  that  the  preacher  needs  to 
throw  himself  back  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church.  His  own  little  congregation  is  as 
nothing  in  so  great  a  war,  his  denomination,  however 
large,  shrinks  into  insignificance,  a  score  of  Christian 
communions  seem  all  too  few  to  meet  and  conquer 
so  formidable  a  foe.  But  when  he  lifts  up  his  eyes 
and  takes  in  the  holy  apostolic  universal  church,  with 
its  thundering  brigades  and  wide-flung  battle  line, 
and  sees  how  many  cohorts  of  the  Lord's  soldiers  are 
contending  on  the  wide  field,  and  notes  the  splendid 
strength  of  phalanxes  of  warriors  whose  courage  and 
loyalty  he  had  forgotten  to  count  on,  and  whose 
very  existence  had  for  a  time  escaped  his  mind,  it  is 
then  that  he  sees  Satan  falling  like  lightning  from 


228  THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

heaven,  and  enters  into  the  peace  of  one  who  has  al- 
ready conquered. 

►  Give  yourself  horizon.  Keep  your  sky  from  be- 
coming low.  Allow  your  thought  wide  ranges.  Let 
your  heart  roam.  Furnish  your  sympathies  spacious 
room.  Look  beyond  your  parish.  Take  in  other 
parishes.  Your  parish  is  the  world.  Look  beyond 
your  denomination.  You  belong  to  them  all.  All 
things  are  yours  if  you  are  Christ's.  Keep  alive  in 
your  people  the  consciousness  that  they  belong  to  a 
vast  multitude  whom  no  man  can  number.  Do  not 
live  exclusively  in  the  present.  Live  also  in  the  past. 
Look  back  often  to  the  Reformation,  that  fiery  fur- 
nace in  which  the  makers  of  our  modern  world  walked 
unharmed,  because  protected  by  the  presence  of  the 
Son  of  man.  Do  not  stop  at  the  Reformation. 
Take  in  with  the  sweep  of  your  eye  the  thousand 
years  that  preceded  Luther,  in  which  God  moved  in 
mysterious  ways  in  the  work  of  subjugating  barbaric 
Europe  to  a  gentler  temper.  Let  your  glance  take  in 
all  the  epochs  of  the  Christian  era,  back  to  the  days 
of  the  apostles.  Link  yourself  and  your  church  into 
the  chain  of  life  which  runs  to  Golgotha.  Never 
get  away  from  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ. 
Think  of  the  church  as  an  ambassador,  treading  the 
highway  of  the  centuries,  holding  in  her  keeping  the 


THE   HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  229 

oracles  of  God,  earth's  inspired  teacher  inculcating 
truths  without  which  the  hearts  of  nations  utterly 
fail,  a  heaven-sent  companion  upon  whose  arm  hu- 
manity leans  as  it  pursues  with  bruised,  bleeding 
feet  the  steep  and  hazardous  way,  a  vast  and  ever 
growing  society  linking  nationalities  and  races  to- 
gether, the  inspirer  of  music  and  painting  and  archi- 
tecture, the  enlightener  of  men's  minds  and  the 
searcher  of  men's  hearts,  taming  the  wild  ages  and  curb- 
ing the  fierce  forces,  bringing  under  her  dominion  every 
type  of  genius,  and  every  variety  of  temper,  feeding 
the  souls  of  heroes  and  martyrs  and  saints,  and  by 
her  glorious  ideals  and  imperishable  traditions  strik- 
ing a. new  unity  through  a  disordered  and  hopeless 
world.  Let  your  vision  be  wide  as  the  earth.  Even 
its  full  sweeping  circumference  is  not  the  limit  of  all 
that  is,  for  touching  it  are  the  clouds  of  glory  which 
conceal  from  human  eyes  the  world  invisible  and 
the  church  triumphant.  Your  church  is  a  part  of 
the  family  which  inhabits  the  world  and  the  ages, 
sweeping  beyond  mortal  sight  into  the  upper 
splendors.  In  heaven  we  shall  understand,  as  it  is 
impossible  to  understand  here,  the  length  and 
breadth  and  depth  of  the  meaning  of  the  worn  and 
wonderful  words;  "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  the  communion  of  Saints." 


LECTURE  VII 
BUILDING  THE  PLAN 


BUILDING  THE  PLAN 

If  a  cardinal  condition  of  success  in  the  Christian 
ministry  is  an  unclouded  vision  of  the  thing  to  be 
done,  a  second  essential  is  the  formulation  of  a  plan 
by  which  the  work  shall  be  accomplished.  First,  \ 
the  vision  of  the  goal,  then  the  method  of  reaching  ' 
it.  There  are  two  classes  of  ministers  whose  careers 
are  tragic.  The  first  are  those  who  see  not  clearly 
what  it  is  they  are  to  do.  The  world  for  them  lies 
shrouded  in  a  mist.  They  walk  like  men  in  a  fog. 
The  second  see  with  some  degree  of  clearness  the 
destination,  but  they  are  too  careless  or  precipitate 
to  build  the  agencies  by  which  the  goal  can  be  at- 
tained. Both  classes  of  men  arrive  nowhere,  the 
first  because  they  do  not  know  where  they  want  to  go, 
the  second  because  they  lack  the  wisdom  of  fitting 
means  to  ends. 

If  we  think  of  the  Christian  mim'ster  as  a  builder, 
the  necessity  of  planning  presses  itself  at  once  upon 
the  mind.  What  is  an  architect  but  a  designer,  and 
what  is  a  builder  but  a  man  who  makes  and  follows 
plans  ?    Before  a  pencil  is  put  to  paper,  the  architect 

233 


234  BUILDING  THE   PLAN 

sees  the  building  which  is  to  be  ;  and  before  the  first 
shovel  of  earth  is  turned  for  the  foundation,  speci- 
fications have  been  accurately  and  voluminously 
elaborated.  Builders  never  dash  ahead,  not  know- 
ing whither  they  are  going.  The  planning  intellect 
has  gone  before  them,  carefully  marking  out  the  way. 
The  depth  and  thickness  of  the  foundations,  the 
length  and  composition  of  all  the  walls,  the  dimen- 
sions of  every  chamber,  the  location  of  every  door 
and  window,  the  position  of  every  pipe  and  wire  and 
chimney,  a  thousand  details  are  thought  out  and 
fixed  before  the  stones  are  blasted  from  the  quarry 
or  the  first  load  of  lumber  is  ordered  from  the  mill. 
It  is  not  the  way  of  builders  to  plunge  blindly  into 
their  work,  trusting  to  the  inspiration  of  the  moment 
or  some  happy  conjunction  of  events  to  guide  them 
in  the  shaping  of  the  structure  for  which  the  world  is 
waiting.  Doors  and  windows  cannot  be  located  at 
the  dictate  of  a  passing  fancy,  nor  can  the  propor- 
tions of  an  edifice  which  is  to  delight  the  eyes  and 
serve  the  needs  of  many  generations  be  left  to  the 
caprice  of  men  who  have  started  with  no  definite 
conception  of  how  the  different  parts  of  the  building 
are  to  be  organized  into  a  well-balanced  and  service- 
able whole.  When  men  dedicate  themselves  to  the 
construction  of  a  cathedral,  months,  and  it  may  be 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  235 

years,  are  devoted  to  the  perfecting  of  the  plan.  The 
voids  are  spaced,  the  solids  are  proportioned,  the 
contours  are  traced.  There  is  a  central  idea,  and 
everything  develops  from  something  else.  It  is  only 
by  painstaking  planning  that  the  proportions  are  at 
last  made  perfect,  and  the  arrangement  becomes  so 
natural  that  it  seems  to  be  inevitable.  Preaching  is 
a  science  and  an  art.  Preachers  are  architects  and 
artists.  Men  are  Hving  stones  to  be  built  into  a 
growing  temple.  They  who  work  upon  this  tem- 
ple must  understand  and  obey  the  subtle  and  in- 
exorable laws  of  spiritual  architecture.  They  must 
restrain  caprice.  They  must  work  with  a  firm  and 
steady  hand,  the  hand  made  steady  by  a  far-seeing 
eye.  The  eye  must  see  what  ought  to  be,  and  trace 
the  lines  of  what  is  to  be,  and  all  the  preacher's  toil 
must  be  cooperant  to  an  end. 

The  man  who  is  called  to  the  work  of  church  build- 
ing ought  to  study  and  practise  the  art  of  planning. 
The  plan  itself  is  a  sort  of  edifice  to  be  built  by  pa- 
tient thought  and  conscientious  care.  It  is  not  a 
waste  of  time  to  give  hours  and  days  to  the  work  of 
pondering  and  maturing  schedules  for  future  opera- 
tions. Each  day  should  be  surveyed  from  the  van- 
tage point  of  its  earliest  working  hour,  each  week 
should  be  mapped  before  its  first  day  has  reached 


236  BUILDING   THE   PLAN 

its  noon,  each  month  should  be  laid  out  before  it  has 
arrived.  The  preacher  should  work  upon  his  plan 
continually,  modifying  it  from  time  to  time  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  movements  of  the  divine  spirit,  perfecting 
it  in  the  illumination  of  the  increasing  light.  His 
plan  is  an  invisible  temple  in  whose  construction  the 
sound  of  hammers  is  never  heard,  but  which,  though 
a  purely  spiritual  creation,  and  known  to  God  and 
the  preacher  only,  is  a  potent  factor  in  giving  shape 
and  beauty  to  the  temple  built  of  flesh  and  blood 
which  is  to  stand  before  the  world. 

The  best  of  all  times  for  the  work  of  planning  is 
a  minister's  vacation.  This  is  one  of  the  two  best 
uses  to  which  a  vacation  can  be  put.  The  first 
object  of  a  vacation  is  relaxation.  The  bow  which 
is  always  bent  deteriorates  in  value  as  a  weapon. 
The  field  from  which  the  same  crop  is  year  after 
year  demanded,  after  a  while  runs  out.  The  brain 
is  like  the  soil  and  must  be  given  seasons  to  lie 
fallow.  No  mind  can  give  out  perpetually.  There 
must  be  extended  periods  for  receiving.  The 
largest  reservoir  in  time  becomes  empty  if  a  con- 
stant stream  flows  out  and  no  compensating  stream 
flows  in.  When  ministers  cross  the  deadhne  at 
fifty,  it  is  because  they  have  been  lazy,  or  because 
they  have  worked  so  continuously  as  to  fag  the 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  237 

brain.  When  the  mental  field  is  exhausted,  the 
sermonic  crops  are  thin,  and  the  saints  begin  to  say 
of  the  man  in  the  pulpit,  "He  is  a  good  man,  but  he 
cannot  preach."  In  some  cases  it  is  the  saints  which 
are  largely  responsible  for  this  tragic  ending  of  a 
minister's  career.  Because  of  their  ignorance  they 
allowed  their  pastor  no  sufficient  vacation,  and  by 
holding  him  unbrokenly  to  his  task,  they  killed  his 
mind.  And  they  also  wore  out  his  heart.  His  heart 
became  fatigued,  and  he  could  not  bring  to  his  work 
the  elasticity  and  spring  of  a  healthy  spirit,  or  infuse 
into  his  sermons  the  freshness  of  a  soul  which  has 
retained  its  buoyancy  and  sparkle.  A  preacher  is  a 
catapult.  He  is  always  hurHng  things,  ideas,  argu- 
ments, exhortations,  expositions.  To  accomphsh 
his  ends  he  must  project  himself.  His  office  compels 
him  to  throw  his  soul  upon  the  souls  of  others. 
But  this  work,  if  continued  through  too  long  a 
stretch,  is  hurtful  to  the  man  who  does  it,  and  may 
prove  fatal  to  him.  A  man  cannot  be  a  catapult  all 
the  time.  The  expulsive  muscles  of  the  mind  must 
be  given  respite.  The  receptive  faculties  must  have 
opportunity  to  grow  and  gather  stores.  The  minis- 
ter must  at  times  sit  down.  He  must  let  others  feed 
him.  Like  the  Man  of  Men,  he  must  go  apart  into  a 
desert  place  and  rest  awhile.    This  is  his  duty.     He 


238  BXnLDING  THE   PLAN 

shirks  it  at  his  peril.  Every  minister  should  have 
at  least  one  month  out  of  every  twelve  for  relaxa- 
tion. If  the  parish  is  large,  two  months  are  better 
than  one.  In  any  case,  two  weeks  is  no  vacation  at 
all.  One  week  is  required  for  clearing  out  the  mind 
so  that  the  minister  is  able  to  rest,  and  the  second 
week  loses  its  healing  virtue  if  broken  into  by  pre- 
paration for  the  sermons  for  the  first  Sunday  after 
his  return.  Nothing  less  than  a  month  deserves 
the  name  of  vacation  for  a  preacher.  If  church 
officials  are  unwilHng  to  grant  one  month  in  twelve, 
they  should  be  instructed.  Men  who  mean  well 
often  crucify  God's  servants,  not  knowing  what 
they  do.  Pastorates  must  of  necessity  be  short, 
if  ministers  are  not  given  reasonable  spaces  for 
recuperation.  It  should  be  the  ambition  of  every 
church  and  all  pastors  to  make  the  pastorate 
long. 

It  is  when  the  minister  is  not  driven  by  the  duties 
of  the  ordinary  days  that  he  can  best  plan  for  the 
work  of  the  coming  year.  One  can  see  his  church 
best  when  he  gets  away  from  it.  Detachment  sup- 
plies the  eyes  with  new  lenses.  An  artist  working 
in  oil  steps  back  again  and  again  from  the  canvas 
in  order  to  see  what  he  is  doing.  The  minister 
should  every  year  stand  back  from  his  church,  and 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  239 

examine  it  in  the  light  of  a  changed  perspective. 
At  his  leisure  he  can  observe  how  far  the  develop- 
ment of  his  ideal  has  progressed,  and  may  possibly 
discover  defects  which  had  escaped  his  notice. 
He  will  find  that  certain  things  have  gotten  out  of 
their  true  relations,  and  certain  other  things  do  not 
exist  in  correct  proportions.  The  shadows  are  too 
intense,  the  high  lights  are  not  strong  enough.  The 
emphasis  has  been  too  insistent  at  certain  points, 
and  there  are  drifts  and  tendencies  which  need 
immediate  attention.  Many  a  valley  must  be  ex- 
alted, and  several  hills  must  be  brought  low  in  order 
that  the  way  of  the  Lord  may  be  prepared.  A  care- 
ful survey  of  the  last  year's  work  is  an  excellent 
discipline  for  fitting  one  to  plan  intelligently  for  the 
year  to  come.  A  wise  minister  is  never  idle  on  his 
vacation.  There  are  a  hundred  things  which  he  can 
attend  to  while  he  is  sitting  down.  He  can  mend 
his  nets.  They  have  become  worn  and  possibly 
torn  by  the  hard  usage  of  the  year,  and  he  can  now 
look  them  over  and  repair  them.  Certain  methods 
have  proved  faulty,  and  these  can  be  investigated 
and  improved.  What  is  the  church  itself  but  a  big 
net  let  down  into  the  human  sea?  It  is  always 
getting  torn,  and  the  minister  on  his  vacation  can 
leisurely  examine  the  rents.     He  can  deal  with  his 


240  BUILDING  THE  PLAN 

church  as  a  physician  treats  a  patient,  making  a 
careful  diagnosis,  ascertaining  the  weak  spots  in  the 
organism,  and  deciding  on  certain  courses  of  treat- 
ment which  promise  to  bring  the  invalid  into  fuller 
health.  He  can  look  the  church  over  as  a  teacher 
surveys  his  school,  asking  himself  what  are  the 
pupils'  chief  defects,  and  what  are  the  graces  to 
which  most  thought  and  time  should  be  devoted  in 
order  to  bring  the  school  up  to  the  standard  pre- 
scribed by  the  Great  Teacher.  He  can  inspect  his 
church  as  a  general  sizes  up  his  army,  counting 
up  the  troops  which  are  available  for  action,  making 
a  roll  of  those  who  are  in  the  hospital  unable  to  bear 
the  shock  of  battle,  or  even  the  fatigue  of  the  march. 
He  can  mentally  reconnoitre  the  country  of  the 
enemy,  studying  his  position,  pondering  his  re- 
sources, speculating  as  to  his  probable  powers  of 
resistance,  and  calculating  the  chances  of  a  victorious 
attack.  He  can  scrutinize  his  church  as  a  builder 
runs  his  eyes  up  and  down  a  building,  noting  the 
cracks  and  stains,  measuring  tjie  extent  of  the  dilapi- 
dation which  time  and  wear  have  wrought,  and 
devising  plans  for  its  cleansing  and  complete  res- 
toration. A  minister  ought  to  come  back  from  his 
vacation  knowing  what  he  is  going  to  do.  If,  in  the 
quiet  hours  of  his  holiday,  he  has  on  mountain  side, 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  24I 

or  by  the  sea,  or  under  some  ancient  oak  or  pine, 
or  on  the  waters  of  some  lovely  lake,  looked  at  his 
church  with  eyes  made  keen  by  love,  and  has  made 
mental  note  of  its  deficiencies  and  delinquencies, 
and  has  catalogued  its  opportunities  and  immediate 
obligations,  and  if  he  has  meditated  on  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  situation,  and  weighed  the  obstacles  which 
must  be  overcome,  and  if  he  has  balanced  in  his 
mind  the  comparative  merits  of  different  plans  of 
campaign,  and  has  decided  which  one  gives  largest 
promise  of  success,  he  will  carry  in  his  soul  an  in- 
spiration which  will  communicate  itself  to  his  people, 
and  will  find  himself  endowed  with  a  strength  and 
courage  which  will  lighten  the  heaviest  burdens  and 
throw  round  the  most  desperate  enterprises  the  halo 
of  hopefulness.  A  church  Hkes  to  feel  itself  in  the 
grip  of  a  man  who  knows  where  he  is  going.  Noth- 
ing is  so  discouraging  to  Christian  people  as  to  feel 
that  their  leader  is  not  leading.  The  outlook  is 
indeed  dark  if  the  preacher  does  not  know  what 
things  he  and  his  church  ought  to  bring  to  pass. 
Simply  to  keep  the  church  machinery  running  for 
the  sake  of  seeing  the  wheels  go  round,  is  a  vexation 
of  spirit,  driving  church  members  into  the  mood  of 
the  man  who  exclaimed  :  ''Vanity  of  vanities,  all 
is  vanity."    A  minister  has  not  made  the  highest 


242  BUILDING  THE   PLAN 

possible  use  of  his  vacation  unless  he  comes  out  ol 
it  with  a  plan  for  the  next  year's  work. 

The  benefits  of  a  plan  are  manifold.  It  helps  the 
minister  save  his  soul.  It  protects  him  against  the 
encroachments  of  all  sorts  of  idle  and  thoughtless 
people  who  are  ready  to  eat  up  a  minister's  strength 
and  time.  A  man  who  has  not  had  actual  experience 
in  the  Christian  ministry  has  not  the  faintest  con- 
ception of  the  pressure,  constant  and  tremendous, 
to  which  a  pastor  is  subjected.  His  tasks  are  multi- 
tudinous, and  he  is  in  peril  of  being  dissipated  and 
broken  by  them..  When  one  has  too  many  things 
to  do,  he  becomes  bewildered  and  helpless.  The 
young  preacher  is  Hkely  to  be  pushed  hither  and 
thither  by  people  and  events,  until  the  week  becomes 
a  turmoil  and  a  tangle.  Driven  by  forces  which  are 
as  pitiless  as  furies,  he  feels  sometimes  Hke  a  straw 
blown  about  by  the  parish  wind.  His  good  inten- 
tions are  smashed  to  spHnters  by  the  impact  of 
chance  happenings.  The  world  is  full  of  good- 
hearted  but  inconsiderate  people,  amiable,  but 
cruel  because  they  do  not  think.  Men  who  have  no 
connection  with  the  church  rush  to  the  minister 
when  they  have  axes  to  grind.  He  is  asked  to  do  a 
hundred  things  which  he  ought  not  to  attempt  to  do. 
The  ministry  has  in  it  many  exhausted  men  who 


BXnLDING   THE   PLAN  243 

have  frittered  away  their  energies  on  a  multitude 
of  unrelated  errands  and  bootless  projects.  Caught 
in  this  seething  whirlpool  of  parochial  activity, 
the  preacher  suddenly  finds  himself  face  to  face  with 
a  new  Lord's  day  calHng  for  two  sermons  which  he 
has  had  no  time  to  ^Drepare.  He  goes  into  the  pulpit 
shamefaced,  knowing  that  his  message  is  not  related 
to  the  message  that  preceded  it,  or  to  the  message 
which  is  likely  to  come  after  it,  but  is  a  haphazard 
thing  extemporized  to  meet  the  emergency  of  an 
embarrassing  occasion.  A  man  who  works  in  this 
fashion  is  not  an  artist.  He  is  a  clodhopper.  He 
is  Uving  from  hand  to  mouth  and  therefore  belongs 
to  the  shiftless  and  defective  classes.  The  church  of 
such  a  minister  will  be  an  unshapely,  ungainly  thing, 
and  as  soon  as  possible  he  will  exchange  it  for  an- 
other. ^ 

A  definite  and  well-considered  plan  is  a  min- 
ister's Hfe  preserver.  It  helps  him  to  hold  the  out- 
side world  in  its  place,  and  to  keep  his  parish  from 
crushing  him.  A  good-natured  man,  unless  he  is  \ 
shielded  by  a  plan,  is  apt  to  be  wheedled  into  all  ♦ 
sorts  of  useless  undertakings  and  inveigled  into 
many  kinds  of  intellectual  and  social  dissipation. 
The  minister  is  indeed  the  servant  of  all,  but  this 
does  not  mean  that  he  is  to  be  the  drudge  of  every 


244  BTHLDING   THE   PLAN 

little  despot  who  crosses  his  path  and  beckons  to 
him.  He  is  the  servant  of  all,  and  therefore  cannot 
allow  himself  to  be  undone  by  a  foolish  few.  A 
preacher  should  plan  his  study  hours,  and  hedge 
them  in  with  a  wall  of  fire.  He  should  plan  his 
social  life,  and  keep  himself  rigorously  within  the 
bounds  which  his  own  good  sense  has  circumscribed. 
He  should  live  within  his  income.  Are  there  not 
twelve  hours  in  the  day,  and  has  not  the  stock  of 
nervous  energy  also  its  limitations  ?  A  man  cannot 
do  everything  he  would  like  to  do,  or  everything 
which  other  people  want  him  to  do,  or  everything 
which  the  world  tells  him  he  ought  to  do.  He  must 
pick  and  choose  the  particular  things  which  he  is 
convinced  God  wants  him  to  do,  and  when  undiscern- 
ing  and  meddlesome  people  urge  him  to  do  this  and 
that  and  beg  him  to  go  here  and  there,  let  him  think 
of  the  Man  who  never  once  allowed  himself  to  be 
elbowed  from  his  path,  calmly  saying,  ^'My  hour 
is  not  yet  come." 

A  plan  saves  the  minister  from  the  tyranny  of  his  i 
own  moods  and  caprices.  Most  preachers  have 
moods  in  abundance,  and  of  luxuriant  variety. 
Inspirational  men  are  exceptionally  sensitive,  and 
responsive  to  their  environment.  It  is  because  they 
can  be  moved  that  they  are  able  to  move  others. 


BXnLDING   THE   PLAN  245 

Coarse-grained  and  stolid  men  never  make  inspiring 
preachers.  The  temperament  which  fits  a  man  to 
become  the  medium  of  the  spirit  of  life  is  specially 
susceptible  to  wayward  inspirations  and  depress- 
ing humors.  The  preacher,  more  than  most  men, 
fluctuates  in  the  tone  of  his  feelings.  He  is  up  and 
down,  exalted  and  abased,  in  heaven  and  not  in 
heaven.  Like  Elijah  he  is  jubilant  to-day  on 
Carmel,  and  to-morrow  he  is  under  the  Juniper  tree. 
This  week  he  has  the  best  church  in  the  world, 
next  week  he  is  meditating  the  paragraphs  of  his 
letter  of  resignation.  These  elations  and  depres- 
sions are  psychological  experiences  with  which 
mim'sters,  with  few  exceptions,  are  compelled  to 
contend.  It  is  well  to  plan  for  them  in  order  that 
they  may  not  work  havoc.  Many  a  minister  in  a 
despondent  mood  has  taken  a  step  which  has  filled 
years  with  regret.  No  man  is  himself  in  his  depleted 
hours.  The  judgment  gets  twisted  when  the  fires 
of  life  burn  low.  Virtue  is  going  out  of  a  minister 
all  the  time,  because  some  one  is  always  touching 
him.  The  drain  of  the  blood  of  the  nerves  is  con- 
stant. He  should  save  himself  from  himself  by  a 
plan.  A  plan  is  a  bulwark  against  aberrations. 
Every  man  has  his  luminous  hours,  and  a  plan 
formed  in  the  light  can   be   carried  out  through 


246  BUILDING  THE   PLAN 

hours  of  gloom.  The  path  which  one  has  seen  from 
the  mountain  can  be  followed  even  after  it  has  been 
blurred  by  the  inblowing  mist.  A  plan  is  a  bridge 
which  carries  the  preacher  over  rushing  torrents  of 
dark  feeling,  an  angel  which  protects  him  through  the 
storm  of  the  wild  night.  The  soul  of  a  preacher  is 
not  secure  without  a  plan. 

It  is  by  planning  that  a  minister  also  escapes  from 
the  clutches  of  the  demon  of  indefiniteness.  Vague- 
ness of  expression,  vagueness  of  thought,  vagueness 
of  poUcy,  these  constitute  a  trinity  of  demons  which 
the  preacher  must  at  all  costs  overcome.  Demons 
do  not  like  plans.  They  are  all  opposed  to  order, 
for  order  is  heaven's  first  law.  They  are  the 
friends  of  confusion,  the  makers  of  chaos.  If  a 
preacher  can  be  induced  to  follow  his  impulses  and 
to  rely  on  his  fitful  enthusiasms,  the  infernal  world 
rejoices.  It  is  the  man  who  sits  down  and  counts  the 
cost  of  the  tower  who  is  most  likely  to  finish  it. 
It  is  the  general  who  carefully  calculates  the  re- 
sources both  of  himself  and  of  his  enemy  who  in- 
creases his  chances  of  winning  the  victory.  The  suc- 
cessful preacher  is  the  man  who  first  of  all  takes 
time  to  ascertain  precisely  what  it  is  he  wants  to  do, 
and  then  takes  additional  time  for  working  out  his 
plan  of  doing  it.    When  a  preacher  preaches,  and 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  1^47 

men  go  home  from  the  sermon  not  knowing  what 
the  preacher  was  trying  to  accomplish,  and  when 
he  works  an  entire  year  among  his  people  and  leaves 
them  at  the  end  of  the  year  in  doubt  as  to  what  he 
wanted  them  to  do  and  be,  he  is  a  workman  of  whom 
the  church  of  God  has  reason  to  be  ashamed.  The 
preacher  ought  to  work  upon  his  plan  in  order  to 
sharpen  his  mind.  He  can  dissipate  a  fog  by  creating 
a  program.  It  is  only  by  building  a  good  plan  that 
he  can  save  himself  from  the  humiliation  of  making 
a  botch  of  his  church. 

For  the  sake  also  of  the  people  the  minister  ought 
to  plan  his  work.  It  is  a  wonderful  liberty  which  is 
granted  to  ministers,  and  the  liberty  ought  to  be 
used  humbly  and  in  the  fear  of  God.  To  them  is 
given  the  privilege  of  determining  not  only  what 
hymns  shall  be  sung,  what  truths  shall  be  unfolded, 
what  duties  enforced,  what  warnings  shall  be 
sounded,  what  consolations  administered,  but  also, 
except  in  liturgical  churches,  what  Scripture  shall 
be  read,  and  what  shall  be  the  length  and  character 
of  all  the  prayers.  The  whole  ordering,  not  only 
of  pubKc  worship,  but  of  parochial  activity,  is  left 
practically  in  their  hands.  It  is  a  heavy  responsi- 
bility not  always  appreciated,  a  solemn  trust  which 
is  oftentimes  abused.    If  the  minister  does  not  plan 


248  BUILDING   THE    PLAN 

his  work,  his  people  are  at  the  mercy  of  his  impulses 
and  fancies,  his  prejudices  and  idiosyncrasies,  pos- 
sibly his  vagaries  and  hallucinations.  He  will,  un- 
less he  guards  himself  against  it,  follow  his  natural 
likings,  choosing  always  the  line  of  least  resistance, 
and  thus  he  will  give  his  people  not  what  they  ought 
to  have,  but  what  it  happens  to  be  easiest  for  him  to 
give.  In  this  way  he  will  fall  into  ruts  and  even 
gullies,  dragging  all  his  unhappy  flock  with  him. 
His  instruction  will  lack  balance.  The  life  of 
the  parish  will  languish,  struck  through  with  the 
deadening  monotone  of  a  selfish  man.  The  impulses 
of  the  passing  hour  are  poor  guides  in  the  realm  of 
ministerial  duty.  The  preacher  must  use  his  reason. 
He  should  present  to  God  and  his  parish  a  reason- 
able service.  Having  looked  backward  and  forward 
and  all  around,  he  should  lay  out  his  work  on  a 
rational  basis,  with  due  consideration  to  all  the 
different  interests  which  have  a  right  to  be  recog- 
nized. A  plan  drawn  by  the  reason  tugs  at  a  man 
and  pulls  him  in  spite  of  his  biases  and  preferences 
into  wider  orbits.  The  man  who  plans  for  his  people 
J  crucifies  many  of  his  own  fancies  and  foibles.  The 
hmnan  heart,  even  in  the  breast  of  a  preacher, 
is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  it  is  desperately 
sick.    The  deceitfulness  can  be  in  a  measure  cir- 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  249 

cumvented  by  a  plan.  Who  has  not  seen  a  minister 
riding  proudly  down  the  Appian  Way  of  his  own 
tastes  and  ambitions,  dragging  his  parish  at  his 
chariot  wheels  ?  But  if  the  church  be  the  bride  of 
Christ,  it  is  she  who  is  in  the  chariot,  and  the 
preacher  is  her  servant.  She  is  reading  the  book  of 
Life,  and  like  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  whom  Philip 
overtook,  she  is  perplexed  by  certain  paragraphs 
and  phrases.  It  is  for  the  preacher  to  draw  near, 
find  the  enigmatic  passages,  and  proceed  to  their 
systematic  unfolding  and  orderly  application.  In 
building  his  plan  the  preacher  keeps  his  eye  on  his 
church.  When  a  minister  acts  off-hand,  without  pre- 
meditation, he  may  forget  to  act  like  a  Christian; 
but  when  he  sits  down  and  calmly  forecasts  the  year, 
he  is  certain,  unless  he  be  a  son  of  perdition,  to  look 
not  only  on  his  own  things  but  also  on  the  things 
of  others.  Planning  for  his  people  reduces  the  self- 
ishness of  the  preacher's  heart.  Paul  was  a  father, 
a  mother,  and  a  brother  to  his  converts.  He  was 
always  anticipating  their  wants,  making  some  new 
provision  for  their  souls. 

For  the  sake  of  himself  and  his  people  every  1 
minister  ought  to  have  a  church  year.     If  he  is  not 
the  servant  of  a  communion  which  suppKes  him 
with  a  schedule  ready  made,  let  him  make  one  for 


250  BUILDING   THE    PLAN 

himself.  He  can  make  a  better  one,  possibly, 
than  can  any  ecclesiastical  council,  however  august. 
The  unanswerable  objection  against  all  calendars 
devised  for  the  use  of  Christian  bodies  is  that  they 
are  too  stifif.  Not  enough  room  is  allowed  for  the 
free  play  of  the  life  of  the  individual  churches. 
Wide  liberty  is  needed  in  the  planning  of  public 
worship,  and  great  flexibihty  is  desirable  in  the 
framework  of  the  plan.  The  church  of  God  exists 
in  dififerent  zones,  and  therefore  in  different  cli- 
mates; and  consequently  the  almanac  is  not  a  safe 
guide-book  for  the  church  in  the  work  of  planning 
its  worship.  Races  differ  greatly  in  temperament 
and  culture,  communities  differ  widely  in  tradition 
and  social  custom.  To  try  to  force  all  churches  into 
a  common  temporal  schedule  irritates  and  fetters. 
The  church  that  uses  in  all  its  congregations  a  table 
of  Scripture  readings  made  out  by  men  who  lived 
three  hundred  years  ago  needlessly  hampers  its  min- 
isters in  the  doing  of  their  work.  The  appointed 
lesson  for  the  day  is  often  inappropriate,  either 
because  of  the  character  of  the  congregation,  or  the 
season  of  the  year,  or  the  overshadowing  of  some 
great  and  recent  event  which  calls  for  Scripture  of  a 
different  tone.  To  have  the  same  theme  treated  in 
all  churches  on  the  same  day  is  striving  after  a  uni- 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  251 

fonnity  which  is  not  worth  what  it  costs.  The 
interests  of  the  local  congregation  should  be  jeal- 
ously safeguarded,  and  every  pastor  ought  to  be 
granted  large  freedom  in  shaping  the  worship  to  the 
particular  requirements  of  his  own  parish.  For 
instance,  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  an  event 
which,  along  with  the  birth  of  Jesus  and  his  resur- 
rection, ought  to  be  commemorated  every  year,  but 
there  is  no  compelling  reason  why  the  coming  of  the 
Spirit  should  be  celebrated  only  on  the  seventh 
Sunday  after  Easter.  For  Easter  is  itself  a  movable 
festival,  it  being  impossible  to  hold  fast  to  the 
precise  anniversary  day  of  Jesus'  rising  from  the 
tomb.  The  dates  in  the  almanac  are  such  formal 
and  flimsy  things  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  bind- 
ing to  any  one  of  them  inseparably  any  one  of  the 
great  events  in  the  Hfe  of  our  Lord.  If  the  larger 
part  of  a  minister's  congregation  do  not  remain  in 
the  city  seven  weeks  after  Easter,  why  should  he 
not  preach  his  Pentecostal  sermon  on  some  earher 
Sunday?  To  keep  the  correct  sequence  of  the 
events  is  desirable,  but  to  observe  the  precise  day  is 
not   important. 

Several  centuries  ago  the  non-conformist  bodies 
of  Great  Britain  threw  away  the  traditional 
ecclesiastical   year,    and   for  reason.     The  church 


252  BUILDING   THE   PLAN 

calendar  had  become  a  part  of  the  yoke  which 
it  was  impossible  longer  to  bear.  It  was 
freighted  with  associations  which  were  disturbing 
to  many  consciences  and  hearts.  The  number  of 
festivals  and  fasts,  of  vigils  and  feasts,  of  bishops, 
martyrs,  confessors,  and  saints  to  be  commemorated, 
had  been  so  multipHed  that  the  church  calendar 
had  become  a  burden  and  scandal.  But  the  idea 
which  lies  at  the  root  of  the  church  year  is  a  sound 
one,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  all  ministers,  no 
matter  what  their  ecclesiastical  connections,  should 
not  make  use  of  it.  The  root  idea  is  that  the  funda-  I 
mental  facts  and  truths  of  the  Christian  religion  i 
shall  be  commemorated  at  stated  times  every  year. 
Such  an  annual  commemoration  has  many  things  to , 
commend  it.  It  is  helpful  to  the  minister  in  that  it  [ 
keeps  him  from  wandering  away  from  the  things 
which  he  is  ordained  to  proclaim.  It  safeguards  the  j 
church  against  the  neglect  of  vital  Christian  doctrine. 
It  fosters  the  natural  growth  of  the  spiritual  Hfe. 
If  a  minister  marks  upon  his  calendar  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  the  cardinal  events  in  the  Hfe  of 
Jesus,  and  the  foundation  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
faith,  he  will  save  himself  from  a  variety  which  is 
distracting,  and  from  a  monotony  which  is  benumb- 
ing, and  his  people  from  that  ignorance  of  evangelic 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  253 

truth  which  lies  like  a  blight  upon  so  many  congre- 
gations.    There  are  certain  themes  of  such  moment 
to  the  soul  that  the  preacher  should  deal  with  them 
every  year.     The   sovereignty  of   God,   the  love 
of  God,  the  birth  and  death  and  resurrection  and 
character  of  Jesus,  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  Great  Commandment,  the  New  Commandment, 
and  the   Golden  Rule,  faith   and  hope  and  love, 
prayer,   Bible   study,   and   self-sacrificing   service, 
the  guilt  and  penalty  of  sin,  the  call  to  repentance, 
the  offer  of  forgiveness,  civic  duty,  international 
peace,  missions  at  home  and  abroad,  the  commun- 
ion of  saints,  and  the  life  eternal,  —  surely  no  year 
would  be  complete  with  any  of  these   sovereign 
themes  omitted.     They  are  themes  which  never 
grow  old.     They  can  never  be  exhausted.      They 
are  springs  at  which  our  fathers  drank,  and  the  last 
generation  which  shall  live  upon  this  earth  will  find 
refreshment  in  them.     There  are  at  least  twenty 
themes  on  which  a  minister  ought  to  preach  every 
year.     They  are  the  old  things  which  he  is  to  bring 
out  of  his  treasury  again  and  again,  giving  them  each 
year  a  different  body,  and  pouring  into  them  each 
year  a  fresh  passion  which  will  make  them  all  new. 
Still  other  sermons  can  be  decided  on  before  the 
year  opens.    These  will  be  upon  themes  which  were 


254  BUILDING  THE   PLAN 

not  touched  upon  last  year  and  which  need  not  be 
repeated  in  the  year  which  is  to  follow.  Truth  is  a 
vast  country,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  a  preacher 
should  settle  down  in  one  small  corner  of  it.  It 
should  be  his  ambition  each  succeeding  year  to  con- 
duct his  hearers  into  at  least  one  new  region  of  the 
Scriptures,  in  which  the  scenery  is  somewhat  un- 
famihar,  and  where  the  flowers  and  fruits  expand 
one's  conception  of  the  lovely  and  luscious  things 
which  grow  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  Many  of 
these  sermons  can  be  coordinated.  They  can  be 
organized  into  groups  or  courses.  Sermons  can  be 
trained  to  help  one  another.  They  are  not  Christian 
sermons  if  they  recognize  no  neighbors  and  confess 
no  duties.  They  ought  to  march  like  soldiers  en- 
listed for  a  great  campaign.  The  sermons  which 
come  late  ought  to  support  the  sermons  which  came 
early,  and  carry  onward  the  work  which  they  began. 
There  ought  to  be  a  spiritual  unity  running  through 
the  year,  and  one  increasing  purpose.  What  these 
sermons  ought  to  be,  the  preacher  cannot  tell  until 
he  has  made  a  careful  study  of  the  spiritual  condition 
of  his  church.  What  does  it  lack?  Faith,  cheer- 
fulness, hopefulness,  patience,  aggressiveness,  rever- 
ence, love  ?  Whatever  it  lacks  the  sermons  ought 
to  supply.     A  preacher  ought  to  be  as  wise  as  a 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  255 

farmer.  A  farmer  decides  what  crops  he  wants, 
and  selects  his  seeds  accordingly.  He  knows  he 
will  reap  what  he  sows.  The  preacher  has  the 
advantage  of  the  farmer  in  that  the  preacher  can 
not  only  select  his  seeds,  but  he  can  also  control  the 
weather.  He  can  determine  the  quantit)^  of  the  sun 
and  the  dew.  He  can  fix  the  sequence  of  the  seasons. 
If  he  does  not  get  the  fruit  he  desires,  it  is  because 
he  does  not  understand  the  creation  and  manage- 
ment of  spiritual  meteorological  conditions. 

The  skilled  preacher  ever  works  to  make  an  im- 
pression. Deep  impressions  are  made  by  concen- 
trating forces  upon  definite  points.  If  sermons  are 
entirely  disconnected,  and  if  one  sermon  does  not 
care  what  sermon  preceded  it,  or  what  sermon  is 
going  to  follow,  the  best  results  are  impossible.  One 
reason  why  the  noises  of  the  street  weary  us  is 
because  there  is  no  unity  running  through  them. 
They  are  disconnected  and  therefore  discordant. 
The  tones  of  a  symphony  soothe  and  charm  because 
in  the  variety  of  tones  there  lives  a  unity.  By  con- 
centration the  composer  produces  a  mighty  effect. 
The  sermons  of  a  year  ought  to  be  a  symphony. 
A  few  dominant  notes  should  be  carried  through  all 
the  music  of  the  year,  other  notes  being  held  in  sub- 
ordination, and  yet  even  these  subordinate  parts 


2S6  BUILDING  THE  PLAN 

not  being  neglected,  but  organized  and  compelled 
to  contribute  to  the  harmonious  whole.  The  archi- 
tectonic genius  of  a  man  comes  out  in  building  his 
course  of  instruction  for  a  year. 

It  is  of  great  advantage  to  a  preacher  to  carry  in 
his  eye  a  score  of  dates  on  which  sermons  on  particu- 
lar themes  are  to  fall  due.  By  fixing  the  dates  long 
in  advance  and  compelling  the  mind  to  fall  in  with 
the  predetermined  schedule,  the  minister  gains  self- 
mastery,  and  escapes  from  the  intolerable  bondage 
of  an  intellect  dependent  on  moods.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  be  delivered  from  the  crotchets  of  a  reluctant 
and  recalcitrant  mind.  After  a  while  the  mind  comes 
to  like  this  orderly  procedure,  and  goes  to  work 
with  enthusiasm  when  the  appointed  hour  strikes. 
Men  who  carry  sermon  themes  long  in  their  mind  are 
always  surprised  by  the  ease  with  which  the  sermons, 
when  called  for,  come  forth,  i  The  mind  has  queer 
ways  of  working  below  consciousness,  and  a  theme 
once  given  to  it  is  probably  unfolding  day  after  day, 
although  we  ourselves  are  unconscious  of  its  growth. 
One  never  knows  what  is  going  to  happen  when  he 
puts  a  truth  to  soak  in  the  juices  of  the  mind.  The 
mind  is  a  capacious  receptacle  and  one  can  put 
twenty  themes  into  it  as  well  as  one,  and  all  the 
twenty  will  have  room  in  which  to  develop.      Put 


BUILDING  THE   PLAN  257 

twenty  subjects  into  the  mind  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  and  no  matter  what  book  you  open,  sen- 
tences will  fly  out  of  the  book,  and  light  on  one  or  an- 
other member  of  this  group  of  themes,  just  as  bees 
when  let  loose  in  a  field  Hght  on  the  flower  which  con- 
tains the  nectar  which  they  most  rehsh.  Or,  to 
change  the  figure,  build  your  arbor  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  set  out  your  vines,  and  they  will  grow 
day  and  night,  you  know  not  how,  for  God  will 
nourish  them  in  ways  known  only  to  himself,  and 
you  will  have  in  every  season  abundant  fruit  for  the 
nourishment  of  your  people. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  Scripture  lessons  for""  the 
service  of  public  worship  should  also  be  planned. 
Their  selection  certainly  ought  not  to  be  left  to  acci- 
dent or  caprice.  The  man  who  reads  to  his  people 
the  first  chapter  that  happens  to  occur  to  him,  is 
related  to  the  man  who  preaches  a  sermon  on  the 
first  text  on  which  his  eye  happens  to  alight.  They 
are  both  brothers  of  the  primitive  medicine  man. 
Luck  has  no  place  in  the  Christian  pulpit.  Every- 
thing should  be  done  decently  and  in  order,  nothing 
at  random  or  haphazard.  The  public  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  is  a  part  of  the  educational  system  of  the 
Christian  church,  and  the  work  ought  to  be  carried 
on  with  premeditation  and  a  clear-eyed,  comprehen- 


258  BUILDING  THE   PLAN 

sive  purpose.  If  a  minister  follows  his  own  inclina- 
tions, he  is  likely  to  read  and  reread  his  favorite 
chapters.  If  he  always  reads  the  chapter  which 
chances  to  contain  his  text,  he  will  deprive  his  people 
of  many  chapters  which  deserve  a  place  in  the  wor- 
ship of  the  church.  There  was  a  book  of  Scripture 
which  was  lost  once  by  the  clergymen  of  the  Jewish 
church,  and,  strange  to  say,  it  was  lost  in  the  temple. 
In  many  a  Christian  church  more  than  one  book  of 
the  Bible  is  lost.  Its  message  is  never  heard  in 
public  worship.  Even  ministers  who  entertain  ex- 
alted theories  of  inspiration  sometimes  have  a  cu- 
rious fashion  of  treating  whole  books  of  Holy  Writ 
as  though  they  were  books  of  straw.  They  do  not 
ostracize  these  books  intentionally,  but  drop  them 
because  there  is  no  method  in  their  church  adminis- 
tration. Unless  a  preacher  plans  to  travel  sys- 
tematically through  the  Bible  in  the  worship  of  the 
church,  he  will  unconsciously  come  back  repeatedly 
to  a  few  chapters  which  are  congenial  because  they 
are  famihar.  It  is  unwise  for  a  man  to  make  his  own 
taste  dictator  in  deciding  what  Scriptures  shall  be 
read.  Many  men  have  many  minds  and  many  needs 
and  many  tastes,  and  the  Bible  is  a  myriad-sided  book 
intended  for  a  myriad-sided  humanity.  Because  a 
Bible  book  does  not  appeal  to  the  preacher  is  no 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  259 

sufficient  reason  for  exiling  it  from  the  Christian 
pulpit.    Its  lack  of  appeal  may  be  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  preacher  has  outgrown  it,  or  that  he  has 
not  yet  grown  up  to  it.     Saints  in  the  pew,  maturer 
than  he  is,  might  feed  upon  it  with  thanksgiving,  or 
immature  disciples  might  find  in  it  the  simple  food 
which   children  need.     The  preacher   who  ignores 
the  Old  Testament  in  his  Scripture  reading  because 
the  New  Testament  is  higher,  robs  and  wrongs  his 
people.     The  Old  Testament  was  the  only  Bible  of 
our  Lord.     It  is  the  book  which  the  apostles  kept 
open  before  them  while  they  preached.    It  is  the 
book  which  passed  like  iron  into  the  blood  of  the 
Puritans,  making  them  strong  to  overthrow  ancient 
tyrannies  and  estabhsh  the  world  on  a  new  founda- 
tion.    There  is  ethical  instruction  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment which  will  never  be  outgrown.     In  the  regenera- 
tion of  modern  society  and  the  creation  of  a  new  world 
order,  the  prophets  of  Israel  have  a  great  role  to  play. 
iThere  is  no  book  in  the  Bible  which  the  modern 
/church  does  not  need.     Many  chapters,  to  be  sure, 
deal  with  things  transitory  and  local,  and  have  no 
claim  upon  the  modern  church  in  her  worship  or  life, 
but  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  and  not  the  Bible  in  frag- 
ments or  fractions,  is  a  book  to  be  given  to  the  people. 
The  planning  of  Scripture  readings  brings  blessings 


26o  BUILDING  THE   PLAN 

to  the  preacher.  It  carries  him  into  regions  into 
which,  if  left  to  his  own  impulses,  he  might  never  go. 
Even  in  Bible  regions  which  seem  to  be  nothing  but 
rock  and  sand,  he  will  find  precious  material  for  the 
building  of  the  church.  The  steady,  progressive 
movement  of  pastor  and  people  across  the  entire 
Bible  world  introduces  a  variety  into  the  Sunday 
service  which  breaks  the  monotony  of  the  pulpit 
ministrations.  If  the  preacher  is  a  narrow  man, 
lacking  in  versatility  and  range,  and  preaches  ser- 
mons of  but  a  single  type,  a  rehef  is  given  to  the 
service  by  introducing  into  it  the  varied  voices  of  a 
great  company  of  men  who  by  divers  portions  and  in 
divers  manners  proclaim  the  character  and  will  of 
God.  Every  preacher,  no  matter  how  talented, 
needs  all  available  weapons  for  the  slaying  of  that 
arch  enemy  of  all  preachers  —  Monotony.  Various 
lectionaries  —  tables  of  Bible  lessons  —  have  been  pre- 
pared by  various  branches  of  the  Christian  church, 
but  none  of  them  is,  in  my  judgment,  satisfactory. 
Why  should  not  the  preacher  make  his  own  ?  Let 
him  go  carefully  through  the  Bible,  culKng  out  the 
chapters  which  contain  either  milk  or  meat  for  the 
present  generation,  and  let  these  selected  passages 
be  arranged  in  an  ordered  sequence,  which  can  be 
travelled  through  in  at  least  five  years.    The  building  i 


BUILDING   THE   PLAN  261 

of  this  lectionary  is  one  of  the  first  pieces  of  construc- 
tive work  to  which  the  young  preacher  may  wisely 
devote  not  a  few  of  his  leisure  hours. 

If  a  minister  plans  his  Scripture  lessons  for  five 
years,  why  not  other  things  ?  We  are  never  at  our 
best  unless  we  are  working  for  results  too  great  to  be 
attained  in  a  single  year.  The  lines  of  action  must 
be  long  if  the  pulse  is  to  be  even,  and  the  endeavor 
steady.  A  long  pastorate  is  to  be  craved  and  planned 
for.  A  minister  on  taking  charge  of  a  parish  ought 
to  lay  out  his  work  on  the  supposition  that  he  will 
remain  where  he  is  at  least  five  years.  He  may,  it  is 
true,  not  remam  a  year.  Any  one  of  many  conceiv- 
able combinations  of  circumstances  may  render  an 
extended  pastorate  inadvisable  or  impossible,  but  no 
man  should  allow  contingencies  to  dictate  the  plan- 
ning of  his  life.  In  a  world  like  this  all  things  are  pos- 
sible. The  preacher  may  die  next  year,  next  month, 
next  week,  to-night,  but  no  sensible  man  allows  pos- 
sibilities a  chief  place  in  determining  what  he  is 
going  to  aim  to  do.  Some  things  must  be  assumed, 
and  one  of  them  is  that  the  man  is  going  to  live  and 
that  his  pastorate  will  not  be  short.  A  minister 
who  expects  to  die  next  week  cannot  do  his  best  work, 
neither  can  a  man  who  expects  to  change  his  parish 
next  year.     If  with  the  eye  of  faith  he  sees  the  years 


262  BUILDING   THE   PLAN 

stretching  out  before  him,  he  can  work  with  a  clearer 
eye  and  grip  the  world  with  a  steadier  hand.  He  will 
possess  that  which  is  indispensable  to  a  successful 
teacher,  —  a  quiet  heart.  Men  who  are  restless  and 
wavering,  always  anticipating  a  change,  never  succeed 
as  preachers.  The  feeling  of  unset tledness  bums 
like  a  fever  in  the  blood,  consuming  the  vital  ele- 
ments of  strength.  With  a  long  pastorate  in  his  eye 
a  minister  is  less  likely  to  do  shoddy  work.  He  will 
not  cultivate  those  mushroom  growths  which  flourish 
and  wilt  like  Jonah's  gourd.  The  parish  will  not  be 
made  feverish  by  being  placed  under  high  pressure 
methods.  The  new  pastor  will  not  go  at  things  furi- 
ously, as  some  young  men  do,  striking  a  pace  which 
it  is  impossible  for  any  mortal  to  keep  up,  but  he  will 
swing  into  a  steady  gait  which  can  be  maintained 
through  the  years.  The  difficult  thing  in  the  min- 
istry is  not  to  fly  for  a  spell  like  an  eagle,  or  to  run 
for  a  season  like  a  race  horse,  but  to  walk  a  long  time 
and  not  faint. 

With  five  possible  years  before  him  a  man  has 
encouragement  to  formulate  a  plan.  Men  do  not  lay 
long  plans  who  expect  to  leave  their  church  at 
the  end  of  a  few  months.  It  is  not  human  nature  to 
set  out  trees  whose  fruit  one  never  expects  to  eat,  to 
make  sacrifices  for  a  cause  whose  prosperity  one  never 


BUILDING  THE   PLAN  263 

expects  to  see,  to  prepare  for  triumphs  which  one  has 
no  hope  of  enjoying.  A  man  who  expects  a  short 
pastorate  has  many  inducements  to  do  surface  work. 
He  is  tempted  to  do  only  those  things  which  make  a 
show.  The  deep  and  difficult  things  will  be  passed 
by.  Such  a  man  dwarfs  himself  and  blights  the 
parish.  If  the  preacher  feels  that  he  is  only  a  tran- 
sient guest  in  the  ecclesiastical  inn,  waiting  for  the 
next  train  to  carry  him  to  a  more  commodious  hotel, 
all  his  people  will  know  it  and  no  one  will  have 
heart  to  do  the  things  which  cost  blood.  Fidgety 
men  ought  never  to  go  into  the  ministry.  Nomads 
are  out  of  place  in  the  realm  of  pastoral  service. 
Men  who  become  the  pastor  of  a  church  simply  to 
use  its  pulpit  as  a  stepping-stone  to  something 
higher,  ought  to  be  outlawed  by  all  churches.  When 
a  minister  consents  to  become  the  pastor  of  a  church 
let  him  settle  down,  resolved  never  to  leave  it  until 
it  is  made  clear  that  his  work  there  has  been  carried 
to  such  a  point  that  he  can  in  justice  to  the  great 
church  of  God  pass  on  to  a  field  which  calls  for  still 
harder  service. 

A  man  can  build  great  plans  if  he  has  several  years 
over  which  to  stretch  them.  He  can  lay  out  courses 
of  study  for  his  own  intellectual  development,  and 
by  his  plan  he  will  save  himself  from  squandering  his 


264  BUILDING   THE   PLAN 

time  on  the  miscellaneous  books  which  the  pub- 
lishers thrust  on  him,  or  which  his  parishioners  ask 
him  to  read.  Many  a  minister  has  been  wrecked  by 
reading  without  purpose  and  method.  He  had  no 
plan  of  his  own,  and  so  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  every 
one  who  volunteered  a  suggestion.  He  can  also  plan 
his  studies  in  theology,  history,  biography,  and 
poetry,  four  branches  indispensable  to  a  man  who 
wishes  to  be  a  master-teacher  of  men.  Certain  sub- 
jects will  be  assigned  to  each  of  the  years,  and  certain 
volmnes  will  be  set  apart  for  each  of  the  months, 
and  no  sort  of  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  men  or 
devils  will  be  allowed  to  break  down  the  minister's 
determination  to  pursue  the  prearranged  course  to  its 
end.  Desultory  reading  and  spasmodic  study  have 
slain  their  thousands.  A  man  who  forms  a  clean-cut 
plan  and  clings  to  it  heroically  through  the  opposi- 
tions of  the  years,  is  a  man  who  advances  in  wisdom 
and  stature,  and  in  favor  with  God  and  men. 

Even  the  sermons  can  be  planned  for  a  period  of 
five  years — not  all  of  them,  but  those  which  deal  with 
truths  which  come  up  every  year  for  fresh  treatment. 
A  man  can  plan  five  sermons  on  the  doctrine  of  God, 
or  the  character  of  Jesus,  or  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  or  the  Christian  church,  or  the  Life  Eternal, 
or  Missionary  Work  and  Workers,  each  sermon  ap- 


BUILDING   THE    PLAN  265 

proaching  the  subject  by  a  different  route,  and  view- 
ing it  from  a  different  standpoint.  Unless  a  preacher 
plans  his  annually  recurring  sermons,  he  will  find 
himself  saying  the  same  things  every  year,  and  his 
people,  wondering  why  the  sermons  are  so  tedious, 
will  make  no  progress  in  their  apprehension  of  these 
cardinal  themes.  By  cutting  a  great  truth  into  sec- 
tions, and  assigning  one  section  to  each  year,  the 
preacher  will  at  the  end  of  a  term  of  years  have  the 
joy  of  knowing  that  he  himself  has  made  progress 
in  the  mastery  of  truth,  and  that  his  people  are  in 
possession  of  a  wider  and  wealthier  kingdom. 

After  a  minister  has  served  an  apprenticeship  in 
laying  five-year  plans,  he  may  venture  upon  the  work 
of  planning  for  ten  years.  Having  learned  how  to 
map  out  the  work  of  ten  years,  he  will  be  ready  to 
plan  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  cannot  plan  it  in 
detail,  but  the  outlines  can  be  sketched,  and  these  can 
be  filled  in  as  the  needed  light  is  furnished.  No 
man's  plan  can  be  carried  out  entirely  as  he  framed 
it,  for  we  are  under  the  government  of  a  God  who 
also  makes  plans,  and  when  our  plans  conflict  with 
His  plans,  it  is  our  plans  which  are  broken.  But, 
using  the  light  we  have,  we  should  project  long 
courses  of  action,  and  when  another  girds  us  and  we 
are  carried  whither  we  would  not  go,  it  is  our  con- 


266  BUILDING   THE   PLAN 

solation  to  know  we  are  in  the  hands  of  One  who 
plans  only  for  our  good.  Paul  planned  to  go  into 
Bithynia,  but  his  plan  was  shattered.  He  purposed 
to  enter  a  province,  and  God  gave  him  a  continent. 
While  we  are  weeping  over  our  failure  to  enter  Bi- 
thynia, we  are  in  fact  on  our  way  to  Troas,  where  a 
new  vision  awaits  us,  and  larger  fields  are  to  be  opened 
to  us  by  the  generosity  of  the  incomprehensible, 
wonder-working  God. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  a  preacher  to  look  often  down 
the  years  which  slope  toward  the  sunset,  and  see  him- 
self as  he  would  like'  himself  to  be  at  the  end  of  the 
day.  It  is  good  also  to  behold  in  a  dream  the 
Church  of  God  rising  in  the  distance,  glorious  with 
the  proportions  and  graces  which  it  ought  to  have, 
if  all  the  builders  do  their  duty.  Occasionally  one 
should  picture  himself  in  that  bright  world  where, 
the  fires  of  judgment  having  done  their  work,  it  shall 
be  made  evident  how  much  of  the  material  which 
the  preacher  used  was  hay  and  wood  and  stubble.  It 
is  when  the  eyes  are  cleansed  by  the  touch  of  the 
upper  worlds  that  we  see  the  emptiness  of  reputation, 
the  hollowness  of  cheap  successes,  and  realize  the 
transitoriness  of  the  pride  of  place  and  the  pomp  of 
learning.  In  our  Patmos  hours  it  is  revealed  to  us 
that  it  is  not  our  predecessors  toward  whom  our 


BUILDING  THE   PLAN  267 

eyes  should  most  frequently  be  turned,  but  toward 
our  successors,  the  men  who  are  to  labor  after  we  are 
in  our  graves.  It  is  not  for  us  to  strive  to  equal  or 
surpass  the  men  who  have  gone  before  us,  but  so  to 
work  as  to  make  it  easier  for  the  men  who  come  af- 
ter us  to  bring  the  church  to  a  new  perfection.  We 
stand  in  the  line  of  a  great  succession,  and  to  so  link 
ourselves  to  the  men  behind,  and  the  men  before,  as 
to  enable  God  to  do  through  us  the  work  for  which 
we  were  created  —  this  is  victory. 

The  first  great  preacher  had  but  one  ambition,  to 
apprehend  that  for  which  also  he  was  apprehended 
by  Christ  Jesus.  Can  any  heart  soar  to  a  loftier 
height?  Paul  planned  his  work.  He  left  nothing 
to  caprice.  He  did  not  run  uncertainly.  He  did 
not  fight  as  one  who  beats  the  air.  He  had  a  burn- 
ing purpose  and  a  shining  goal,  and  he  pressed  on 
steadily  toward  the  mark.  It  is  a  thrilling  shout  of 
victory,  his  exultant  cry,  ''I  have  finished  the  course.'' 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  planned  his  work.  In  com- 
munion with  his  Father  he  fashioned  his  course  pa- 
tiently through  the  years.  He  had  a  cup  to  drink, 
and  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  and  he  was 
straitened  until  it  was  accomplished.  There  is  a  rap- 
ture in  his  confession  to  his  Father,  ''I  have  accom- 
plished the  work  which  thou  hast  given  me  to  do." 


268  BUILDING   THE    PLAN 

His  joy  on  earth  reached  its  climax  in  the  excla- 
mation of  his  latest  hour,  ''It  is  finished  !"  When 
a  man  gives  himself  to  the  work  of  preaching,  hold- 
ing back  nothing,  giving  all,  when  he  plans  his  life 
and  work  with  an  eye  single  to  God's  glory,  ever  aim- 
ing to  bring  his  plan  into  deepening  harmony  with 
the  plan  of  Heaven,  he  becomes  a  successor  of  the 
apostles,  and  enters  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord. 


LECTURE  VIII 
THE   BUILDING   OF  THE   BUILDER 


THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  BUILDER 

Two  queries  have  no  doubt  arisen  in  many  an 
alert  mind  while  we  have  been  walking  together  along 
the  way :  Why  has  there  been  no  lecture  on  the 
"Building  of  the  Sermon"?  and  why  has  the 
"Building  of  the  Builder"  been  relegated  to  the 
closing  hour?  In  all  building  operations  does  not 
the  Builder  come  first?  Does  not  the  plan  pro- 
ceed from  him?  Does  not  the  edifice  depend  on 
him  ?  Is  he  not  the  first  link  in  the  chain,  the  foun- 
tain from  which  all  else  proceeds  ?  Why  not  build 
the  preacher,  and  then  proceed  to  build  the  church  ? 

The  preacher  comes  last  in  this  course  of  lectures, 
because  in  the  work  of  building  he  comes  first.  It 
is  a  paradox  of  Christianity  that  those  who  are  first 
are  often  last.  He  who  would  find  himself  must 
lose  himself,  and  only  to  him  who  makes  himself  of 
no  reputation  and  lays  down  his  life,  is  the  promise 
given.  It  was  the  Master's  way  to  set  men,  first 
of  all,  not  face  to  face  with  themselves,  but  face  to 
face  with  their  task,  and  it  was  by  the  patient  doing 
of  their  task  that  they  were   to   save   their   souls. 

2-Jl 


272  THE   BUILDING   OF  THE   BUILDER 

Many  things  he  was  wont  to  tell  them  about  the  im- 
portance and  dijBBiculty  of  the  work  to  which  he  had 
called  them,  and  few  things  apparently  did  he  say 
about  their  own  salvation.  They  were  to  seek  first 
of  all  the  Kingdom  of  God,  to  build  a  brotherhood 
in  which  the  love  of  God  should  be  controlling  and  by 
which  the  will  of  God  should  get  itself  done  on  earth, 
and,  doing  this,  they  would  find  all  necessary  things 
being  added.  The  apostles  were  men,  and  there- 
fore interested  in  their  own  personal  advancement, 
but  whenever  they  attempted  to  induce  Jesus  to 
speak  of  their  own  dignities  and  promotions,  he  began 
'  to  talk  again  about  their  work.  Even  up  to  the  edge 
of  the  ascension  cloud  they  carried  their  discussions 
of  rank  and  dominion,  but  to  the  end  the  only  assur- 
ance which  was  given  to  them  was  that  they  should 
have  sufficient  strength  with  which  to  do  their  work. 
He  left  them  face  to  face  with  a  church  that  was  to 
be  built,  and  it  was  in  the  building  of  this  church  that 
they  were  to  grow  into  that  fulness  of  stature  which 
is  appointed  for  the  sons  of  God. 

Many  of  the  tragedies  of  the  Christian  ministry 
are  caused  by  the  minister  getting  into  the  wrong 
place.  Everything  seems  to  conspire  to  push  him 
to  the  front.  His  own  native  inclinations  and  am- 
bitions, the  love  of  place,  the  love  of  praise,  and  the 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  273 

love  of  power,  render  the  first  place  attractive,  and 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  outside  of  him  are 
in  league  with  the  world  inside  of  him,  to  keep  the 
eyes  of  the  minister  upon  himself.  When  he  comes  \ 
to  the  seminary,  he  is  taken  in  charge  by  a  group  of 
experts  whose  business  it  is  to  call  his  attention  to 
himself.  One  man  lays  hold  upon  his  voice,  and 
asks  him  to  study  it,  to  note  its  intonations,  inflec- 
tions, cadences,  to  observe  his  gestures  and  keep  track 
of  them.  Another  selects  his  diction,  and  requests 
him  to  criticise  it,  to  keep  his  eye  on  his  ad- 
jectives, his  relative  pronouns,  and  the  structure  of 
his  sentences.  Another  takes  his  sermons  and  bids 
him  take  them  to  pieces  and  study  each  separate 
part,  inspecting  it  under  the  microscope  of  the  crit- 
ical judgment.  Another  collects  his  doctrinal  be- 
liefs, his  conceptions  of  God  and  man,  the  Scriptures 
and  the  Sacraments,  and  rivets  his  gaze  upon  them, 
requesting  him  to  sit  in  judgment  on  them,  to  pry 
into  their  origin,  to  analyze  them  and  to  find  reasons 
for  them.  It  may  be  that  some  one  will  even  dig  up 
the  roots  of  his  ''call  to  the  ministry."  All  young 
men  come  out  of  the  seminary  more  or  less  intro- 
spective and  self-conscious.  It  is  inevitable.  | 
The  process  begun  in  the  seminary  is  carried  on 
by  the  parish.     A  minister's  task  drags  him  to  the 


274  THE   BUILDING   OF  THE   BUILDER 

front.  He  cannot  do  his  work  in  a  comer.  He 
must  have  the  uppermost  room.  At  every  feast  he 
is  at  the  head  of  the  table.  He  is  the  observed  of  all 
observers.  He  must  be  not  only  seen  but  heard.  He 
must  always  be  speaking  or  praying  or  reading.  He 
cannot  help  displaying  his  gifts.  This  exhibition  of 
himself  invites  criticism.  If  he  is  handsome,  he  will 
overhear  some  one  remarking  it.  If  he  has  a  good 
voice,  many  will  tell  him  so.  If  his  style  is  effective, 
the  compHments  will  be  abundant.  If  his  success  is 
conspicuous,  the  silver  bugles  will  blow  a  musical 
blast  across  the  town.  His  name  will  be  on  many 
lips,  and  the  light  of  many  rejoicing  eyes  will  illumine 
his  triumphant  way.  A  man  cannot  hear  the  band 
playing  in  his  honor  without  thinking  of  himself. 
No  matter  how  humble,  he  is  likely  to  become  self- 
conscious  in  the  major  key.  The  building  of  himself 
is  suggested  to  him,  not  by  demons  but  by  the  saints, 
and  the  building  of  the  church,  against  his  wish, 
and  it  may  be  without  his  notice,  gradually  recedes. 
Or  if  his  voice  is  harsh  and  his  gestures  are  awkward, 
if  his  style  is  dull  and  his  ideas  are  thin,  the  empty 
pews  will  speak  to  him,  and  now  and  then  there  will 
be  wafted  to  him  on  a  chilling  breeze  a  whisper  which 
will  cut.  He  will  become  self-conscious  in  the  minor 
key.    This  last  state  is  worse  than  the  first.    A  man 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  275 

conscious  of  what  he  has  is  stronger  than  a  man  con- 
scious of  what  he  lacks.  Adulation  and  disparage- 
ment are  both  deadly.  Conceit  and  despondency 
are  twin  enemies  of  pulpit  power.  Both  of  them  are 
the  children  of  self-consciousness.  A  minister  is  un- 
done whose  eyes  are  fixed  on  himself.  Only  by  look- 
ing away  from  himself  is  it  possible  for  him  to  be 
saved.  Hence  in  the  training  of  preachers  the  \ 
first  glance  should  be  not  inward,  but  outward. 
Paul,  according  to  an  early  tradition,  began  his  min- 
isterial career  with  the  question,  ''Lord,  what  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  do?"  It  is  because  of  his  critical 
and  immeasurable  importance  that  the  preacher  in 
these  lectures  has  been  kept  in  the  background.  For 
his  own  sake  his  eyes  have  been  turned  away  from 
himself.  The  building  of  the  preacher  goes  forward 
during  the  building  of  the  church. 

Certainly  no  one  would  claim  that  the  well-being  of 
the  preacher  is  a  negligible  factor  in  the  complex  prob- 
lem of  church  building,  for  here  as  almost  nowhere 
else,  is  it  incontestably  and  everlastingly  true,  ''Get 
your  man  and  all  is  got."  But  how  to  get  the  man, 
that  is  the  question.  Shall  we  build  him  in  a  vac- 
uum, detached  from  the  world  in  which  he  is  to  work, 
adding  virtue  to  virtue  and  grace  to  grace,  until  at 
last,  full  statured,  it  is  announced  to  him  what  he 


276  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

is  to  do?  Or  shall  we  seek  him  in  the  church,  keeping 
him  under  the  church  ideal,  exposing  him  to  church 
atmospheres  and  forces,  allowing  the  Christian 
brotherhood  to  fashion  him  after  the  pattern  which 
the  Master  gave,  and  ministering  to  him  through 
the  bonds  of  fellowship  until  he  becomes  a  workman 
of  whom  no  one  need  be  ashamed  ? 

Humanly  speaking,  everything  depends  upon  the 
minister.  Music  cannot  save  a  church,  nor  the 
Bible,  nor  the  sacraments,  nor  pulpit  discourses. 
Worship  dies  unless  it  is  kept  alive  by  a  living 
man.  Out  of  the  personality  of  the  preacher 
flow,  as  Jesus  said,  the  refreshing  streams.  Most 
Christian  congregations  know  this.  They  are 
caring  less  and  less  for  scholastic  attainments, 
academic  degrees  and  titles,  denominational  affilia- 
tions, even  creedal  loyalties  —  whatlhey  want  is  a 
man.  Things  that  men  pick  up  in  the  schools  have 
their  value,  but  they  can  never  take  the  place 
of  the  one  thing  essential  in  a  preacher  —  ch^jaCi 
ter.  Two  men  go  from  the  same  seminary,  in  the 
same  year,  with  the  same  education  and  the  same 
creed.  One  succeeds  from  the  beginning,  and  his 
successes  increase  with  the  seasons.  The  other  fails 
from  the  start,  and  his  entire  career  is  a  disappoint- 
ment.   It  is  not  a  difference  in  rhetoric,  ideas,  or 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  277 

training,  but  a  difference  in  men.  They  take  their 
texts  out  of  the  same  Bible,  preach  the  same  scheme 
of  doctrinal  truth,  make  use  in  general  of  the  same 
ideas  and  illustrations,  but  they  do  not  preach  the 
same  gospel,  for  the  gospel  is  truth  moulded  and  vivi- 
fied by  the  soul  of  the  man  who  preaches  it.  A 
preacher  makes  an  impression  not  simply  by  his  words, 
but  by  his  soul.  When  words  do  not  penetrate,  it 
is  because  there  is  a  feeble  man  behind  them.  When 
ideas  do  not  kindle,  it  is  because  there  is  no  divine 
fire  in  the  lips  that  speak  them.  Bullets  may  be  of 
equal  size  and  like  material,  but  the  distance  to 
which  they  travel  depends  upon  the  gun.  Sermons 
are  bullets.  How  far  they  go  does  not  depend  upon 
the  text  or  upon  the  structure  of  the  sermon,  but  upon 
the  texture  of  the  manhood  of  the  preacher.  The 
building  of  the  preacher  becomes,  then,  a  matter  of 
tremendous  moment  to  every  one  interested  in  the 
building  of  the  church.  We  cannot  afford  to  rim  the 
risk  of  spoiling  him  by  allowing  him  to  think  of  him- 
self first. 

The  reason  why  no  special  lecture  has  been  de- 
voted to  the  building  of  the  sermon  is  because  the  sub- 
ject cannot  be  treated  adequately  in  a  single  lec- 
ture. All  the  lectures  have  been  dealing  with  that  in- 
teresting and  tantalizing  theme.    Not  much  has  been 


278  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

said  about  the  sermon,  but  everything  has  been  said 
in  the  interest  of  the  sermon.  There  has  been  scant 
attention  to  the  technique  of  the  sermon,  but  the 
soul  of  the  sermon  has  been  held  steadily  in  view. 
There  have  been  no  suggestions  as  to  texts,  intro- 
ductions, arguments,  climaxes,  and  perorations,  be- 
cause these  things  are  secondary,  and  do  not  reach 
the  root  of  power  in  preaching.  We  have  been  deal- 
ing with  things  more  fundamental.  We  have  faced 
the  aim  of  preaching,  and  peered  into  the  things 
which  make  preaching  worth  while.  We  have  con- 
sidered the  kind  of  atmospheres  in  which  sermons 
catch  fire,  and  have  surveyed  the  world  of  thought 
and  feeling  from  which  the  streams  of  pulpit  power 
proceed.  Because  one  says  nothing  about  the  letter 
of  the  sermon,  does  he  disparage  it?  God  forbid. 
He  exalts  it  if  he  uncovers  the  stupendous  work 
which  sermons  are  to  accomplish.  All  that  has  been 
said  is  designed  to  help  you  in  the  work  of  preaching. 
Preaching  is  your  highest  business.  Nothing  can 
ever  take  its  place.  You  are  to  be  administrators, 
but  administration  will  not  fill  the  place  of  preaching. 
Unless  you  are  preachers,  you  are  not  Hkely  to  have 
much  to  administer.  You  are  to  be  organizers,  but 
the  organizing  gift  will  never  compensate  for  the  lack 
of  the  gift  of  preaching.     Men  who  cannot  preach 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  279 

have  ordinarily  little  to  organize.  When  you  see  a 
man  at  the  head  of  a  large  and  living  church,  display- 
ing rare  gifts  of  organization  and  administration, 
do  not  suppose  that  these  are  the  gifts  by  which  his 
church  came  into  being,  or  which  keep  it  glad  and 
strong.  He  or  some  one  else  created  it  by  preaching. 
Unless  a  man  knows  how  to  present  truth  in  such  a 
way  as  to  get  it  into  the  blood  of  those  who  hear  him, 
he  need  never  hope  for  a  living,  growing,  conquering 
church,  no  matter  what  other  gifts  he  may  be 
possessed  of.  Christian  people  desire  of  their  pas- 
tors nothing  so  much  as  sermons  which  will  vitalize 
and  nourish  them.  They  are  always  shamefaced  if 
obliged  to  say,  ''Our  pastor  is  a  good  man,  but  he 
cannot  preach."  Even  faithful  pastoral  service 
will  not  reconcile  a  congregation  to  incompetency  in 
the  pulpit.  In  this  the  people  are  not  unreasonable. 
They  have  a  right  to  expect  and  demand  that  their 
pastor  shall  instruct  and  comfort  and  strengthen  and 
guide  them  by  his  sermons.  It  is  the  fashion  to-day 
in  certain  quarters  to  speak  disparagingly  of  ser- 
mons. One  would  suppose,  from  the  scornful  intona- 
tions, that  it  is  almost  sacrilegious,  if  not  disreputable, 
to  go  to  church  for  the  purpose  of  listening  to  a  ser- 
mon. We  are  reminded  that  the  purpose  of  church 
attendance  is  the  worship  of  God,  and  that  sermon 


28o  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

hearing  is  a  modern  and  secular  pastime.  All  such 
talk  is  based  on  false  assumptions.  It  is  assumed 
that  preaching  is  not  worship,  and  that  listening  to 
a  sermon  is  a  less  rehgious  exercise  than  that  of  sing- 
ing hymns  and  saying  prayers.  Both  assumptions 
are  without  foundation.  The  true  preacher  in  the 
act  of  genuine  preaching  is  worshipping  the  Almighty, 
offering  to  him  a  sacrifice  more  costly  than  any 
other  which  it  is  possible  for  him  to  offer  in  the  house 
of  God.  If  in  praise  he  is  loving  God  with  his  heart, 
and  in  parish  work  he  is  loving  God  with  his  might, 
then  in  the  act  of  preaching  he  is  loving  God  with  his 
mind,  which  is  also  a  part  of  the  great  command- 
ment. Indeed,  in  preaching  he  uses  all  his  heart,  and 
all  his  soul,  and  all  his  mind,  and  all  his  strength,  as  in 
no  other  act  in  all  his  life.  In  a  sermon  the  preacher 
offers  himself,  soul  and  body,  a  living  sacrifice  unto 
i^God.  Those  who  listen  to  the  sermon  with  docile 
and  attentive  hearts,  seeking  to  find  God's  voice  in 
it,  are  also  engaged  in  worship.  If  to  worship  is  to 
reverence  God,  and  to  perform  acts  of  homage  and 
adoration,  what  higher  reverence  can  be  paid  him 
than  that  offered  by  a  congregation  in  the  act  of  en- 
tering into  a  fuller  apprehension  of  the  meaning  of  a 
truth  uttered  by  prophet,  or  apostle,  or  God's  only 
Son,  and  unfolded  by  a  man  guided  by  the  Holy 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  28 1 

Spirit  ?  The  sermon  is  the  climax  of  public  worsliip. 
It  summons  to  the  throne  of  God  a  larger  number 
of  faculties  than  any  other  act  of  worship.  It  calls 
upon  everything  within  us  to  bless  God's  holy  name. 
The  pastor  of  a  church  is  preeminently  a  preacher. 
^^Feed  my  sheep,"  so  our  Lord  said  to  the  leader  of 
the  twelve.  It  is  a  command  which  comes  to  all 
Christian  pastors.  ' '  God  did  not  send  me  to  baptize, 
but  to  preach  the  gospel,"  so  said  the  Master- 
builder,  and  let  every  man  remember  it,  when  he  is 
tempted  to  shirk  the  arduous  duties  of  a  prophet 
and  choose  the  easier  occupations  of  a  priest.  The 
history  of  the  nineteen  Christian  centuries  confirms 
the  wisdom  of  Paul's  great  declaration,  that  it  has 
pleased  God  to  save  the  world  by  the  foohshness 
of  preaching.  Experience  shows  that  when  preach- 
ers cease  to  preach,  a  darkness  falls  upon  the  world. 
There  are  no  golden  ages  in  Christian  history,  save 
those  made  golden  by  tongues  kindled  by  coals  from 
off  God's  altar.  The  preacher  holds  the  keys  which 
unlock  the  gates  of  all  earth's  prisons.  The  whole 
world  brightens  when  a  man  appears  able  to  unfold  in 
syllables  of  fire  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. 
Preaching  has  had  a  glorious  past.  Its  future  will 
be  more  glorious  still.  The  printing-press  will  never 
supersede   the   human   tongue.     Books   will   never 


282  THE    BUILDING   OF   THE    BUILDER 

drive  out  the  spoken  word.  So  long  as  the  heart  is 
human,  so  long  will  it  respond  to  a  tongue  full  of 
grace  and  truth.  Never  has  the  world  been  so  rich 
in  printing-presses  as  now,  and  never  have  the 
churches  been  so  clamorous  for  preachers.  The  call 
is  loud,  and  it  comes  from  every  quarter.  Any  man 
who  knows  how  to  preach  is  certain  of  a  hearing. 
There  is  no  question  which  the  authorities  of  our 
schools  of  theology  ought  to  ask  with  greater  fre- 
quency and  earnestness  than  "How  can  we  better 
train  our  students  to  become  more  effective,  master- 
ful, triumphant  preachers  ?  "  No  matter  what  else 
a  seminary  may  do,  it  does  not  do  the  chief  thing  if 
it  does  not  send  into  the  churches  well-equipped  and 
able  preachers. 

But  what  is  it  to  preach,  and  how  can  one  make 
himself  a  preacher?  Here  again  we  are  thrown 
back  on  the  basal  fact,  that  the  sermon  depends  on 
the  man.  The  sermon  is,  indeed,  the  man.  The 
man  himself  must  be  a  sermon.  Preaching  is  not 
an  art  in  the  sense  in  which  sculpture,  music,  and 
painting  are  arts.  It  resembles  these,  but  it  tran- 
scends them  all.  The  work  of  the  artist  can  be 
divorced  from  his  character.  In  preaching  it  is  the 
character  of  the  preacher  which  is  the  preacher's 
power.     Preaching  is  not  a  trick  which  can  be 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  283 

mastered  some  bright  morning,  or  a  secret  which 
can  be  transmitted  from  one  man  to  another  for 
a  consideration.  There  is  a  stupid  fellow  mentioned 
in  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  who  supposed  he  could  share 
in  the  apostles'  power  by  the  payment  of  a  sum  of 
money.  Stupidity  of  that  sort  has  not  yet  vanished 
from  the  earth.  Even  to-day  there  are  men  who 
think  that  the  chief  thing  in  preaching  is  an  artful 
use  of  the  voice,  or  a  crafty  combination  of  gestures, 
or  a  cunning  carving  of  diction,  or  an  expert  jugglery 
of  illustrations,  or  a  dexterous  manoeuvring  of  ideas, 
or  a  clever  and  impressive  display  of  learning.  In 
this  view,  preaching  is  a  sort  of  magic,  a  sleight  of 
hand  or  of  tongue,  an  ingenious  piece  of  legerdemain 
by  which  souls  are  mesmerized  and  the  boundaries  of 
God's  kingdom  extended.  The  sermon  is  a  contriv- 
ance which  can  be  wrought  out  by  an  adroit 
schemer,  a  strategem  which  can  be  laid  by  a  long- 
headed intriguer,  a  device  which  can  be  created 
by  an  industrious  artificer.  Men  who  hold  this 
view  sometimes  go  to  hear  preachers  preach  in  order 
to  learn  the  secret  of  their  power.  They  never 
find  out.  God  hides  certain  things  from  the  wise 
and  prudent  —  and  also  from  fools.  The  man  who 
thinks  that  preaching  is  a  trick  of  voice,  or  thought, 
or  language,  never  learns  how  to  preach.    No  men 


284  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

are  so  wearisome  in  the  pulpit  as  the  men  who  know 
they  have  good  voices,  and  are  evidently  making 
an  effort  to  let  their  hearers  know  it  too.  The  best 
thing  that  a  preacher  can  do  with  his  voice  is  to 
hide  it.  The  best  voice  for  preaching  is  the  voice 
that  no  one  ever  hears.  Gestures  which  are  striking 
make  an  impression  the  first  few  times,  but  if  they 
keep  on  striking  they  give  pain.  Eloquence  is  good 
occasionally  when  it  comes  by  the  will  of  Heaven, 
but  no  congregation  can  endure  eloquence  every 
Sunday  for  five  consecutive  years.  Manufactured 
eloquence  is  declamation,  and  declamation  is  not 
eloquence  at  all.  It  is  a  wooden  imitation  of  celes- 
tial fire,  and  is  a  great  weariness.  A  beautiful  style, 
so  beautiful  that  the  rusthng  of  the  verbal  finery 
drowns  the  music  of  the  thought,  is  also  a  burden. 
When  all  the  sentences  roll  out  after  the  fashion  of 
those  of  Macaulay  or  of  Burke,  men  sigh  for  relief. 
The  best  pulpit  style  is  the  style  that  is  not  seen. 
Blessed  is  the  preacher  who  succeeds  in  beating  his 
style  down  into  invisibility.  Voice  and  language 
ought  to  be  Hke  the  atmosphere,  Hfe-supporting 
but  invisible.  Illustrations  are  also  a  nuisance,  un- 
less they  grow  up  naturally  like  flowers  along  the 
path  which  the  sermon  takes.  Expert  illustrators 
grow  irksome  after  the  second  year.    Quotations 


THE    BTHLDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  285 

are  also  gewgaws  which  entertain  for  a  season,  and 
then  lose  their  charm.  They  never  impress  any  but 
the  unlettered,  for  all  men  who  are  acquainted  with 
the  world  of  books  know  where  and  how  to  get  them. 
Stringing  quotations  is  like  stringing  beads,  it  re- 
quires no  intellect,  and  is  hardly  serious  business  for 
a  full-grown  man.  It  is  only  when  the  words  of 
other  men  force  themselves  by  sheer  strength  of 
imdeniable  superiority  into  the  company  of  your 
sentences,  and  bend  themselves  whole-heartedly  to 
the  task  of  carrying  on  your  thought,  that  they 
can  be  considered  other  than  impertinent  and  mis- 
chievous interlopers.  As  for  ideas,  a  preacher  can 
have  too  many  of  them.  Great  thoughts  are  op- 
pressive if  too  abundant.  It  is  not  thoughts  but 
thought  that  a  congregation  wants,  and  you  can- 
not have  thought  without  a  thinker.  The  ideal 
preacher  is  not  a  retailer  of  beautiful  thoughts,  but 
a  man  who  can  bring  to  the  discussion  of  every 
moral  and  spiritual  question  the  illumination  of  a 
sane  and  discriminating  mind.  Learning  is  also  out 
of  place  in  the  pulpit.  Learned  sermons  are  the 
easiest  of  all  to  write,  and  the  most  fatiguing  to  those 
who  hear  them.  Any  one  can  write  a  learned 
sermon  who  is  alone  with  an  encyclopedia  for 
half  a  dozen  hours.     Many  a  church  has  had  its 


286  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

v/  life  crushed  out  by  the  learning  of  its  pastor.  All 
these  things  —  voice,  gesture,  rhetoric,  illustrations, 
quotations,  ideas,  learning  —  have  a  certain  value, 
but  they  are  at  best  superficialities,  and  all  of 
them,  unless  backed  up  by  something  better,  soon 
grow  thin  and  tame.  After  a  little  time  artificial 
elocution  becomes  unbearable,  rhetorical  display 
unendurable,  excessive  illustration  insufferable,  the 
exploitation  of  novel  or  abstract  ideas  intolerable. 

^  Nothing  wears  but  manhood.  To  remain  ten  or  I 
twenty  years  in  the  same  parish,  a  preacher  must  be 
very  simple  and  very  true.  Goodness  never  grows 
stale.  Love  never  becomes  monotonous.  An  in- 
dustrious man  in  good  health  with  disciplined  pow- 
ers, whose  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  can  speak 
year  after  year  to  the  same  people  with  the  dew  of 
the  morning  always  on  his  message.  Preaching 
is  primarily  a  matter  of  manhood.  The  sermon 
depends  on  the  mass  of  the  man.  His  character 
must  be  massive,  or  he  cannot  do  the  work.  One 
sometimes  hears  an  expression  which  tells  much. 
*'He  is  not  big  enough  man  for  the  place."  Is 
he  not  educated?  Yes.  Is  he  not  clever? 
Very.  Bright?  Exceedingly.  Brilliant?  Often. 
And  yet  not  big  enough  for  the  place!  The 
world    makes    a    distinction    between    a    man 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  287 

and  his  gifts.  The  Church  of  God  must  have  the 
man.  The  variety  and  nature  of  his  talents  come 
up  for  consideration  later.  A  sermon  is  not  a 
manufactured  product,  but  a  spiritual  creation.  It 
is  not  a  machine  which  a  man  can  construct  in  his 
sermonic  shop,  and  set  it  running  in  the  pulpit  like 
the  electric  toys  which  one  sees  sometimes  on 
the  corner  of  the  city  street.  A  sermon  is  an  exha- 
lation, a  spiritual  vapor  emerging  from  the  oceanic 
depths  of  the  preacher's  soul.  It  is  an  emana- 
tion, an  efflux,  an  effluence  flowing  from  an  interior 
fountain  hidden  in  the  depths  of  personality. 
It  is  an  efflorescence,  an  outflowering  of  beautiful 
things  whose  home  is  in  the  blood.  It  is  a  per- 
fume from  spiritual  roses  blossoming  in  the  garden  of 
the  heart.  It  is  fruit  growing  on  the  tree  of  a  man's 
life.  ''A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  nei- 
ther can  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit." 
Make  the  tree  good.  A  sermon  is  the  Hfe-blood  of  a 
Christian  spirit.  A  preacher  dies  in  the  act  of  preach- 
ing. He  lays  down  his  life  for  his  brethren.  He 
saves  others,  himself  he  cannot  save.  The  pulpit  is 
a  Golgotha  in  which  the  preacher  gives  his  life  for 
the  life  of  the  world.  Preaching  is  a  great  work. 
To  do  it  as  God  wants  it  done,  the  preacher  must 
be  a  good  man,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith. 


288  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

And  now  let  me  speak,  not  by  way  of  command- 
ment, but  by  way  of  counsel;  not  as  presenting  a 
revelation,  but  only  my  judgment.  It  is  not  good, 
it  seems  to  me,  to  resort  to  various  nostrums  which 
have  been  prepared  for  the  preacher's  uses,  or  to 
lean  too  heavily  upon  sundry  mechanical  devices 
which  have  been  created  for  the  purpose  of  help- 
ing the  minister  on  his  way.  Crutches  are  good  for 
cripples,  and  tonics  are  good  for  invalids,  but  young 
men  starting  on  their  work  in  the  ministry  ought  to 
walk  on  their  own  feet,  uncoddled.  Books  of  illus- 
trations are  good  books  —  to  keep  away  from. 
They  have  no  place  on  the  shelves  of  a  man  who 
wants  to  grow.  Let  the  preacher  get  his  own 
illustrations.  If  he  has  eyes  and  ears  they  will 
come  to  him  in  crowds  —  cr3dng  like  free  children 
of  God:  ^'Here  we  are,  use  us."  The  importance 
of  illustration  in  the  pulpit  has  been  vastly  overes- 
timated, and  many  a  preacher  has  degenerated  into 
a  relator  of  anecdotes  and  repeater  of  stale  stories. 
If  a  man  has  anything  worth  illustrating,  he  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  finding  illustrations,  but  if 
his  chief  ambition  is  to  collect  images,  likenesses,  and 
pictures,  he  is  likely  to  remain  a  child  in  intellect  all 
his  life.  There  is  no  joy  in  the  ministry,  if  life 
is  reduced  to  a  haggard  hunt  after  new  and  striking 


THE    BUILDING   OF   THE    BUILDER  289 

illustrations.  The  preacher  who  cries  out  in  dis- 
may :  '^  Wherewithal  shall  my  sermon  be  pictorially 
clothed?"  should  read  again  the  exhortation: 
''Seek  first  the  Kingdom,"  with  its  accompanying 
promise  that  to  those  who  do  this,  all  things  needful 
will  be  added.  Books  of  ''Great  Thoughts"  are 
also  a  delusion.  No  man  can  entertain  ten  thou- 
sand great  thoughts,  or  even  one  thousand.  They 
simply  encumber  and  suffocate  the  mind.  The 
thoughts  which  a  congregation  needs  are  not  numer- 
ous, and  if  too  many  are  administered  at  any  one 
time  the  mind  is  surfeited  and  sinks  into  a  stupor. 
The  preacher  should  also  beware  of  note-books, 
scrap-books,  envelopes  for  clippings,  cases  of  boxes 
and  drawers  for  the  storing  away  of  sermonic 
material.  All  such  de\aces  have  their  legitimate 
place,  but  they  can  easily  become  a  source  of  peril. 
They  take  a  deal  of  time,  and  a  man  may  form  the 
habit  of  using  his  scissors  when  he  ought  to  be  using 
his  head.  It  is  possible  to  have  a  hundred  huge 
envelopes  bulging  with  sermonic  treasures,  while  the 
mind  is  distressingly  spindUng  and  lean.  It  is  far 
more  important  to  keep  the  heart  full  than  to  have 
a  lot  of  things  laid  away  in  drawers.  Many  a  man 
has  hewed  out  for  himself  at  infinite  pains  cisterns 
which  cannot  hold  the  kind  of  water  for  which 


290  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

humanity  is  thirsting.  Facts  and  figures,  statistics 
and  records,  odds  and  ends  of  information,  —  this  is 
not  the  material  on  which  souls  feed  and  grow.  A 
man  should  get  his  sermons  not  out  of  a  scrap-book 
but  out  of  himself.  Like  the  spider,  he  should 
weave  his  web  out  of  his  own  substance. 

It  is  not  well  to  cultivate  the  homiletic  habit,  the 
habit  of  demanding  a  pound  of  sermonic  flesh  from 
every  Antonio  you  chance  to  meet.  This  habit  will 
grow  upon  you  in  spite  of  all  that  you  can  do,  and 
may  possibly  drown  you  along  with  thousands  of 
others  in  the  pool  of  professionalism.  One  ought 
not  to  be  thinking  shop  all  the  time.  A  man  who 
is  always  working  for  sermons  is  as  foolish  as  the 
man  who  is  always  working  for  money.  Both  men 
may  say  that  they  are  seeking  wealth  to  be  used  for 
the  good  of  others,  but  it  is  not  healthful  to  do  one 
thing  —  no  matter  what  it  is  —  all  the  time.  A 
preacher  ought  to  be  able  to  look  upon  a  landscape 
without  screwing  illustrations  out  of  it,  or  enjoy 
a  sail  upon  the  Rhine  without  working  the  castles 
then  and  there  into  a  course  of  next  winter's  ser- 
mons, or  play  with  children  without  squeezing  from 
them  suggestions  which  may  be  put  to  use  in  the 
prayer-meeting.  The  homiletic  habit  is  a  leech. 
It  sucks  the  blood,  and  leaves  the  man  anaemic. 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  29 1 

Landscapes  and  historic  ruins  and  children,  and 
all  other  lovely  things,  are  to  be  enjoyed.  They 
are  themselves  their  own  excuse  for  being,  and  the 
preacher  should  revel  in  them  with  no  thought  of 
ulterior  ends.  We  wrong  a  book  when  we  read  it 
simply  for  things  which  we  can  use.  It  is  desecra- 
tion of  a  poem  to  read  it  for  fine  phrases  with  which 
to  deck  a  sermon,  and  we  wrong  the  masterpiece  of 
an  historian  when  we  follow  him  only  for  an  illustra- 
tion with  which  to  brighten  up  an  argument.  It  is 
only  when  we  gloriously  forget  ourselves  —  as  Mrs. 
Browning  has  reminded  us  —  and  plunge  headlong 
into  the  depths  of  the  author's  thought,  that  we 
get  out  of  a  book  the  best  thing  which  the  book  has 
to  give.  In  listening  to  great  men  speak,  the 
preacher  ought  to  forget  that  he  too  is  a  speaker. 
He  ought  not  to  fix  his  gaze  on  the  speaker's  voice, 
his  gestures,  or  his  adjectives.  He  ought  not  to  at- 
tempt to  put  into  his  note-book  the  things  which  the 
speaker  says.  All  that  he  can  get  into  his  note-book 
is  a  few  fine  phrases,  a  dozen  noble  sentiments  or 
ideas.  But  what  are  these  compared  with  the  great 
things  which  the  hearer  might  be  receiving  !  The 
things  most  precious  are  subtle  things  which  cannot 
be  caught  on  the  end  of  a  pencil  —  disinthralment, 
enchantment,  exaltation,  the  air  of  a  great  height. 


292  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

While  the  writer  is  jotting  down  a  few  notions  and 
phrases,  he  is  losing  much  of  the  glow  of  the  speaker^s 
soul.  It  is  the  flash  of  the  spirit  and  not  the  words 
of  the  lips  which  is  the  best  thing  which  a  great 
man  has  to  give.  Catch  that  and  you  have  an  im- 
perishable possession.  To  feel  upon  one's  life  the 
hot  breath  of  a  great  heart,  to  drink  into  one's  being 
the  life  of  a  great  soul  in  one  of  its  great  moments, 
is  a  privilege  which  does  not  come  often  and  which 
should  be  valued  above  rubies  and  fine  gold.  We 
are  never  the  same  after  we  have  once  entered  into 
the  feeling  of  a  man  genuinely  great,  after  we  have 
been  fused  by  the  fire  of  his  burning  spirit.  Do  not 
sit  aloof  as  a  critic,  noting  in  cold  blood  trifling 
incidents  of  movement  and  accidents  of  manner; 
get  near  him,  go  with  him,  think  with  him,  feel  with 
him,  live  with  him.  Let  him  expand  you,  exalt 
you,  cleanse  you.  Go  with  him.  He  sees  some- 
thing. He  is  following  a  gleam.  Try  to  see  what 
he  sees.  A  gleam  which  the  eye  once  catches  never 
fades.  Phrases  fade  out  of  the  memory,  ideas 
lose  their  distinctness  of  form,  but  a  light  that  has 
once  shone  into  the  soul  becomes  a  part  of  the  soul's 
life  forever.  Do  not  be  a  critic  whenever  you  can 
be  something  better.  A  critic  even  at  his  best  is 
only  a  second-rate  man.     The  men  of  the  highest 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  293 

rank  are  creators.  It  is  the  creators  who  make 
the  world.  Preachers  are  called  to  be  creators. 
They  are  to  create  new  atmospheres,  new  charac- 
ters, new  worlds.  They  should  develop,  therefore, 
their  creative  faculties,  the  imagination  and  all  the 
powers  by  which  the  soul  admires  and  hopes  and 
loves.  Receptivity,  impressionability,  spiritual  sen- 
sitiveness, sympathy,  responsiveness,  the  genius  for 
merging  the  soul  in  the  souls  of  others  —  these  are 
the  powers  which  the  preacher  needs.  The  critic 
always  thinks  that  he  goes  deep,  but  he  never  goes 
deep  enough  to  find  the  secret  of  life.  We  cannot 
go  deep  by  our  critical  faculty.  The  critical  faculty 
is  an  anatomist,  and  an  anatomist  goes  only  deep 
enough  to  find  bones.  With  the  scalpel  one  can 
reach  the  skeleton,  but  never  the  source  and  home 
of  life.  You  cannot  find  a  speaker^s  power  by  dis- 
section. You  may  analyze  his  arguments,  pick  to 
pieces  his  phrases,  catalogue  his  pictures,  but  these 
are  only  bones.  You  find  his  life  only  when  your 
soul  goes  out  to  meet  him.  Drink  at  the  fountain 
of  his  life,  eat  his  flesh,  drink  his  blood,  that  you 
also  may  live.  What  this  world  needs  is  not  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  bones,  but  a  more  abimdant 
measure  of  vitality. 

It  is  possible  to  work  too  long  upon  a  sermon. 


294  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

The  sermon  may  become  an  idol,  before  which  the 
preacher  prostrates  his  powers  in  worship.  This 
is  the  temptation  that  besets  men  who  have  the 
artistic  temperament,  and  who  have  an  eye  for 
dehcate  shadings  and  an  ear  for  the  finer  melodies 
of  speech.  Before  the  preacher  is  aware  of  it,  he 
has  forgotten  his  congregation,  and  is  thinking 
exclusively  of  the  masterpiece  which  is  to  be  ex- 
hibited in  the  church  salon  next  Sunday  morning. 
This  is  a  sin  which,  when  it  is  finished,  brings  forth 
death.  The  preacher  becomes  increasingly  fastidi- 
ous. He  is  finical  in  the  use  of  dainty  and  perfumed 
words.  He  paints  his  picture  in  such  dehcate  tints 
that  they  cannot  be  seen  by  persons  seated  in  the 
back  pew.  Hypercritical  in  his  taste,  he  falls  into 
various  forms  of  affectation,  and,  unless  arrested 
in  his  downward  course,  he  sinks  into  the  degrada- 
tion of  a  rhetorical  fop.  His  sermon  is  provokingly 
faultless,  unhumanly  regular,  gloriously  null.  It  is 
possible  to  increase  as  an  artist,  and  at  the  same 
time  decrease  as  a  preacher.  The  preacher  has  lost 
his  power  when  his  sermons,  like  superb  works 
of  art,  stand  out  before  his  congregation  in  the 
marble  coldness  of  finished  statues.  Work  like 
this  impoverishes  a  preacher.  He  spends  time 
upon  his  sermon  which  ought  to  be  spent  upon  him- 


THE    BUILDING   OF   THE    BXnLDER  295 

self.  The  polishing  of  sentences  is  a  poor  way  of 
feeding  a  man  who  must  preach.  The  preacher 
needs  constant  supplies  of  nourishment,  and  most 
of  his  morning  hours  must  be  devoted,  not  to 
sermon  building,  but  to  the  building  of  his  soul. 
The  preparation  for  the  specific  sermon  may  be 
crowded  into  a  few  hours,  but  the  preparation  of 
himself  should  go  on  all  the  time.  Young  men, 
ignorant  of  the  laws  of  soul  nutrition,  sometimes 
wear  themselves  thin  in  a  few  years  by  devoting 
themselves  too  exclusively  to  the  work  of  sermon 
preparation.  They  give  themselves  no  time  for  that 
broad  and  brooding  study,  extended  over  many 
fields,  without  which  the  mind  deteriorates  and 
ceases  to  be  productive.  In  the  earlier  years,  a 
young  preacher  must  of  necessity  spend  many  hours 
each  week  upon  his  sermons,  for  he  is  as  yet  an  un- 
practised worker,  and  must  learn  by  laborious  effort 
to  accumulate  material  and  to  give  shape  and 
edge  to  his  style.  But  every  preacher  who  de- 
sires to  make  his  pastorate  long,  must,  as  rapidly 
as  possible,  cut  down  the  hours  devoted  to  sermon 
writing,  in  order  that  he  may  have  more  abundant 
opportunity  to  work  upon  himself.  He  should  aim 
so  to  discipline  his  powers  that  by  and  by  he  shall 
be  able  to  write  a  sermon  in  a  single  morning.     If 


296  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

^a  man  is  industrious  and  keeps  his  mind  and  heart 
brimful,  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not, 
after  a  few  years  of  practice,  give  shape  to  his  Sun- 
day message  between  breakfast  time  and  noon.  A 
genius  now  and  then  will  do  it  in  a  single  hour. 

Let  the  preacher  then  work  for  increased  vitality. 
He  can  do  little  unless  he  is  a  vital  man.  His  work 
is  to  vitalize,  and  a  man  cannot  give  what  he  him- 
self does  not  possess.  Like  the  Master,  the  preacher 
comes  that  men  may  have  life,  and  that  they  may 
have  it  more  abundantly.  A  preacher  impover- 
ished in  his  spirit,  diminishes  the  sum  of  the  spirit- 
ual power  of  the  world.  He  must  in  all  his  nature 
be  sensitive  and  life  creating.  If  he  cannot  feel  a 
thrill  of  joy,  no  one  will  be  thrilled  by  any  glad 
thing  he  says.  If  he  cannot  suffer  an  agony,  no 
heart  will  be  pierced  by  any  tone  which  his  voice 
can  utter.  A  preacher  must  be  intensely  human. 
He  must  be  rich  in  laughter  and  in  tears.  He  must 
be  able  to  rejoice  and  weep,  to  entertain  those  mighty 
hopes  which  make  men  feel  they  are  immortal,  and 
to  burn  with  those  flaming  enthusiasms  which  the 
elect  of  God  in  every  age  have  known.  The 
preacher  must  avoid  all  courses  of  life  which  lower 
his  vitality  and  cause  a  shrinkage  of  the  capacities 
of  the  heart.     Humanity  must  throb  full  volumed 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  297 

in  him.  No  man  can  keep  himself  alive  by  saying 
true  and  lovely  things.  He  must  Kve  and  love  and 
suffer.  He  must  purchase  with  his  blood  the  church 
for  which  the  Messiah  died.  He  must  fill  up  that 
which  is  lacking  of  the  aMctions  of  Christ. 

Only  a  man  full  of  life  dares  to  be  himself. 
Emaciated  men  are  timid,  and  men  stunted  by 
living  exclusively  with  books  dwindle  into  shadows 
and  echoes.  It  is  when  one's  life  is  merged  in  the 
life  of  the  race,  and  the  tide  of  humanity  ebbs  and 
floods  in  one's  veins,  that  one  enters  into  the  experi- 
ences of  a  son  of  the  Highest.  Every  soul  is  orig- 
inal. There  are  no  duplicates  in  the  world  of 
personality.  Every  man  possesses  a  combination 
of  traits  and  talents  never  before  approximated, 
and  never  to  be  repeated.  Every  preacher  is  origi- 
nal who  dares  to  be  himself.  It  matters  not  that 
he  is  ordained  to  preach  truths  that  have  been 
preached  already  ten  thousand  times.  The  words 
of  the  New  Testament  are  ancient  but  not  anti- 
quated, its  ideas  are  antique  but  not  archaic,  its 
principles  are  venerable  but  not  out  of  date,  and  the 
one  thing  needed  to  cause  the  words  to  bum,  the 
ideas  to  glow,  and  the  principles  to  grip,  is  a  preacher 
who  has  become  a  new  man  in  Christ.  The  oldest 
commonplaces  are  no  longer  ^trite  after  they  have 


298  THE   BUILDING    OF   THE   BUILDER 

passed  through  the  red  blood  of  a  man  redeemed. 
The  preacher  who  preaches  the  old  doctrines  out  of 
his  own  heart,  will  find  men  listening  to  him  as  men 
listened  to  Paul  and  Barnabas,  and  although  men 
have  been  long  famiHar  with  the  words,  they  will 
go  home  saying,  ''We  have  never  heard  it  after  this 
fashion." 

A  man  who  thinks  and  works  and  grows  is 
always  interesting.  The  secret  of  an  extended  I 
pastorate  is  a  growing  man.  Young  men  are  some- 
times daunted  by  the  fact  that  all  the  truths  of 
Christianity  are  wrinkled  and  gray-headed.  The 
Christian  preacher  is  ordained  for  the  proclamation 
of  commonplaces.  Brotherhood  and  service,  love 
and  forgiveness,  hope  and  mercy,  who  can  make 
these  verbal  bones  live  ?  Only  a  Hving  soul  can  do 
it.  A  man  half  dead  cannot  do  it.  A  man  with  a 
shrivelled  heart  cannot  do  it.  Only  a  man  in  whom 
Christ  dwells  richly  can  give  sparkle  to  the  trite, 
and  immortal  freshness  to  things  that  have  lost 
their  bloom.  The  Old  World  needs  an  old  gospel. 
Many  things  that  are  new  are  not  true,  and  all 
things  that  are  true  are  not  new.  The  Old  World 
tragedy  goes  on  as  from  the  beginning,  and  there 
is  no  remedy  but  the  one  that  is  old  —  ''Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever," 


THE    BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  299 

the  old,  old  story  of  the  changeless  love  of  the  un- 
changing God.  It  is  a  commonplace,  but  it  comes 
with  the  startling  flash  of  a  new  revelation  whenever 
spoken  by  a  tongue  which  throws  into  it  the  fresh 
joy  of  an  understanding  and  loving  heart.  It  is 
the  man  that  makes  the  sermon.  The  man  is  the 
sermon.  That  is  why  it  is  impossible  to  print  a 
sermon.  No  sermon  has  ever  yet  been  printed. 
We  print  the  words,  but  the  words  are  nothing  but 
the  skeleton,  and  the  spiritual  body  of  the  sermon 
is  the  personality  of  the  man.  One  cannot  account 
for  Peter's  power  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  by  reading 
the  report  of  Peter's  sermon,  nor  can  one  account 
for  the  effect  produced  by  any  of  the  kings  of 
Christian  speech  by  a  study  of  what  the  reporters 
have  preserved.  Not  what  the  preacher  says  but 
what  he  is  —  this  constitutes  the  sermon.  i 

To  preach  with  the  power  of  Christ  one  must 
have  something  of  the  heart  of  Christ.  He  is 
meek  and  lowly  of  heart.  HumiUty  is  the  queen  of 
the  Christian  virtues.  In  the  list  of  the  Beatitudes 
it  is  HumiUty  to  which  the  first  crown  is  given. 
Unless  a  man  becomes  as  a  Httle  child,  he  cannot 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  unless  he  remains 
a  little  child,  he  can  make  no  progress  therein. 
The  man  who  is  always  teaching  must  be  evermore 


300  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

a  learner.  Since  he  must  give  many  his  voice,  he  | 
is  under  bonds  to  lend  every  man  his  ear.  There 
is  no  one  by  whom  the  preacher  cannot  be  taught. 
Everybody  knows  something  which  the  preacher 
has  not  yet  learned.  Those  who  teach  must  never 
cease  to  be  pupils.  The  constant  repetition  of  the 
same  words  has  a  tendency  to  ossify  the  organs  of 
intelligence,  and  also  to  close  the  doors  of  the  heart. 
The  work  of  laying  down  the  law  to  others  some- 
times leaves  men  dictatorial  and  unteachable. 
A  preacher  who  has  nothing  to  learn  is  a  man  who 
can  do  little  in  the  building  of  the  church.  He 
has  lost  the  child  heart,  and  must  get  it  again  before 
the  child-loving  Christ  can  work  through  him. 

In  a  word,  the  preacher  must  obey.  There  are 
subtle  and  inexorable  laws  under  whose  sway  the 
preacher  does  his  work,  and  every  act  of  disobedience 
subtracts  from  his  power.  Laziness,  cowardice, 
vanity,  impatience,  untruthfulness,  envy,  ambition, 
h3^ocrisy,  meanness  —  are  these  not  sins  which  eat 
into  the  lives  of  preachers  and  work  havoc  in  the 
church  of  God?  The  Jewish  church  was  wrecked 
by  the  spiritual  deterioration  of  its  leaders,  and  so 
also  was  the  Mediaeval  Christian  church.  Chris- 
tendom in  the  eighteenth  century  was  dark,  largely 
because  of  the  unfaithfulness  of  Christian  preachers. 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE    BUILDER  30I 

Who  knows  how  much  of  the  weakness  of  the  church 
of  to-day  is  due  to  the  disobedience  of  those  who 
preach  the  gospel?    What  a  stride  forward  the 
church  of  God  would  make  if  only  the  men  in  the 
pulpits  were  more  Christlike  men.     It  is  a  stroke 
of  spiritual  genius  in  Bunyan's  immortal  allegory, 
the  placing  of  a  path  to  hell  starting  near  the  gate 
of  heaven.     If  Judas  fell  to  perdition  from  the  very 
arms  of  Jesus,  let  any  man  who  thinks  he  stands 
take  heed  lest  he  fall.     The  preacher  must  subject 
himself   to   rigid   and   continuous   discipline.    He 
must  walk  the  way  that  is  narrow.     The  gate  that 
opens  into  pulpit  power  is  strait.     Every  moral 
delinquency    reports    itself    in    his    accent,    every 
secret  sin  comes  to  judgment  in  his  preaching. 
''What  you  are  speaks  so  loud"  —  says  Emerson  — 
''I  cannot  hear  what  you  say."    It  is  the  preacher 
who  is  the  sermon,  and  it  is  this  sermon  which  the 
world  remembers.     The  texts  spoken  in  the  pulpit 
are  soon  forgotten,  and  so  are  the  ideas,  and  also 
the  illustrations,  but  the  spirit  of  the  man  who 
preaches  the  sermon  passes  into  those  who  listen, 
and  lives  on  in  them  after  the  preacher's  lips  are 
dust.     For  Christlike  men  in  all  her  pulpits,  the 
soul  of  the  church  pleads  with  God  night  and  day. 
We  have  been  thinking  of  how  the  preacher  builds 


302  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER 

the  church,  let  us  not  forget  how  the  church  builds 
the  preacher.  The  church  is  the  preacher's  school 
in  which  he  learns  his  lessons.  The  church  is  the 
preacher's  hospital,  in  which  the  preacher's  maladies 
are  healed.  The  church  is  the  preacher's  battle- 
field, on  which  he  learns  to  fight  the  foes  of  God  and 
man.  The  church  is  the  preacher's  home,  in  which 
he  gains  the  Christian  virtues  and  comes  into 
possession  of  the  Christian  graces.  It  is  while  he  is 
knitting  the  hearts  of  men  together  that  his  own 
sympathies  are  expanded  and  his  own  affections  are 
enriched.  In  planning  for  the  church  he  cultivates 
his  mental  faculties  :  reason,  foresight,  discrimina- 
tion, judgment,  imagination;  and  in  working  out  his 
plan  he  develops  the  graces  of  the  heart:  longsuffer- 
ing,  patience,  gentleness,  goodness,  temperance, 
and  meekness.  In  sacrificing  for  the  church,  he 
drinks  of  the  cup  of  which  the  Master  drank,  and 
comes  at  last  to  bear  in  his  body  the  marks  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  Out  of  the  church,  texts  and  ideas  come 
for  the  building  of  his  sermons.  Out  of  the  church, 
illustrations  come,  simple  and  natural  and  illumi- 
nating, after  the  fashion  of  the  illustrations  of  Jesus. 
The  church  is  the  preacher's  guardian  angel.  It 
bears  him  up,  and  keeps  him  from  dashing  his  foot 
against  a  stone.    The  vision  of  the  church  checks  him 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  303 

when  tempted  to  enter  on  downward  courses,  and 
braces  him  in  his  shadowed  hours.     Her  majesty 
holds  him  upright,  her  dignity  makes  him  strong. 
The  greatness  of  the  privilege  of  working  for  her 
shames  him  out  of  cheap  ambitions  and  thrills  him 
with  desires  to  be  a  nobler  man.     Through  the 
church  Christ    reaches  his  hands,  moulding   him. 
Master  and  servant  work  together  through  the  labo- 
rious and  glorious  days.    The  preacher  learns  to  love 
Christ  through  the  church.    The  preacher  preaches 
to  the  church,  and  the  church  also  preaches  to  the 
preacher.     It  breaks  the  bread  of  life  to  him.    It 
teaches  him  and  admonishes  him.     It  gives  him  his 
theology.     It  inspires  him  and  consoles  him.     It 
trains  him  and  it  disciplines  him.     It  administers  to 
him  the  sacraments.     It  is  the  servant  of  the  Lord, 
and  it  does  what  the  Lord  himself  cannot  now  do. 
Christ  exists  no  longer  in  the  realm  of  space  and  time. 
His  home  is  in  the  realm  of  spirit.     But  his  church 
exists  in  the  temporal  and  spatial  world,  and  through  it 
he  communicates  with  those  who  love  him.    To  serve 
the  church  is  serving  him.     To  love  the  church  is 
loving  him.     He  accepts  this  love  and  service,  and 
through  the  church  there  flows  back  to  those  who  serve 
and  love  him  the  fulness  of  his  grace  and  benediction. 
The  church  teaches  the  minister  to  pray,    No 


304  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE    BUILDER 

man  needs  to  pray  unless  he  is  engaged  in  an 
impossible  undertaking.  Not  unless  he  is  attempt- 
ing to  do  that  which  is  beyond  the  human,  is  he 
likely  to  throw  himself  back  into  the  arms  of 
God.  The  man  who  strives  to  build  the  church 
works  at  a  task  demanding  strength  transcend- 
ing human  limits.  ^'Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things  ? ''  —  this  is  the  question  which  keeps  ever 
sounding  through  the  chambers  of  the  heart,  and 
the  answer  is:  "Our  sufficiency  is  from  God." 
A  builder  of  the  church  is  of  necessity  a  man  of 
prayer.  The  church  brings  him  again  and  again 
to  his  knees.  The  heights  and  depths  of  prayer 
are  never  known  until  one  carries  on  his  heart  the 
sins  and  sorrows  of  the  Christian  people.  The 
vastness  of  the  work  awes  and  humbles  the  most 
successful  of  Christ's  servants.  It  was  when  Paul 
thought  of  the  work  to  which  God  had  called  him 
that  he  described  himself  as  the  least  of  all  saints. 
To  him  the  church  was  a  medium  of  revelation. 
In  it  he  saw  reflected  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God. 
The  medium  is  ever  before  us,  flashing  its  heavenly 
message  into  our  eyes.  It  is  the  church  which 
makes  it  possible  for  us  to  believe  the  teachings  of 
the  Scriptures.  It  gives  credibility  to  the  doctrine 
that  God  is  indeed  a  Father,  and  that  he  wills  that 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   BUILDER  305 

all  men  shall  be  saved.  With  the  history  of  the 
church  before  us,  we  dare  hope  for  the  conversion 
of  all  nations,  and  can  await  undaunted  the  time 
when  the  knowledge  of  God  shall  cover  the  earth 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  It  is  by  the  love  of 
the  Christian  brotherhood  binding  hearts  together 
across  the  barriers  of  nations  and  races,  that  we  come 
into  the  deepening  assurance  that  the  greatest  thing 
in  the  world  is  love.  It  is  significant  that  it  was  the 
Master-Builder  of  the  first  century  who  wrote  with 
the  most  thrilling  confidence  of  the  enduringness 
of  faith  and  hope  and  love.  The  churches  which 
he  built,  built  him  up  in  the  most  holy  faith. 

The  preacher,  then,  in  working  for  the  church 
works  for  God.  To  do  his  work  he  must  be  a  man  of 
God.  To  have  power  with  men  he  must  incarnate 
the  spirit  of  the  Son  of  God.  When  he  does  all  things 
through  the  Christ  who  strengthens  him,  he  will 
find  himself  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  first 
great  preacher,  and  will,  like  him,  be  willing  to 
suffer  the  loss  of  all  things  that  he  may  gain  Christ 
and  be  found  in  him.  He  will  have  but  one  ambi- 
tion, ''to  know  Christ,  and  the  power  of  his  resur- 
rection, and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  becom- 
ing conformed  unto  his  death,  if  by  any  means  he 
may  attain  unto  the  resurrection  from  the  dead." 

X 


306  THE    BUILDING  OF  THE   BUILDER 

May  all  of  you  who  have  listened  to  these 
lectures,  and  all  others  consecrated  to  your  same 
high  calling,  have  not  only  the  apostle's  purpose, 
but  also  in  the  final  hour  his  shout  of  victory :  ''I 
have  fought  the  good  fight,  I  have  finished  the 
course,  I  have  kept  the  faith :  henceforth  there  is 
laid  up  for  me  the  crown." 


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